C
Dr Joseph Robertson’s Journal of Excursions, No 4; taken down from a man in the parish of Leochel, Aberdeenshire, 12 February, 1829.
1
It fell about the Martinmas time
The wind blew loud and cauld,
And all the knichts of fair Scotland
They drew them to sum hald.
2
Unless it was him young Sir Hugh,
And he beet to sail the sea,
Wi a letter between twa kings, to see an they
wald lat down the wars,
And live and lat them be.
3
On Friday shipped he, and lang
Ere Wodensday at noon
In fair France landed he,
. . . . . . .
4
He fell down before the King,
On his bare knees:
‘Gude mak ye safe and soun;’
‘Fat news o your contrie?’ he says.
5
‘The news o our countrie,’ he says,
‘Is but news brought over the sea,
To see an ye’ll lat down the wars,
And live and lat them be.’
6
‘Deed no,’ he says;
‘I’m but an auld man indeed,
But I’ll no lat down the wars,
And live and lat them be.’
7
It’s out it spak the Queen hersel: I have a shepherd’s sin
Would fight an hour wi you;
‘And by my seeth,’ says young Sir Hugh,
‘That sight fain would I see.’
8
The firsten steed that he drew out,
He was the penny-gray;
He wad hae ridden oer meel or mor
A leve-lang summer’s day.
9
O girths they brak, and great horse lap,
But still sat he on he:
‘A girth, a girth,’ says young Sir Hugh,
‘A girth for charity!’
‘O every girth that you shall have,
Its gude lord shall hae three.’
10
The nexten steed that he drew out,
He was the penny-brown;
He wad hae ridden oer meel or mor
As ever the dew drap down.
11
O bridles brak, and great horse lap,
But still sat he on he:
‘A bridle, a bridle,’ says young Sir Hugh,
‘A bridle for charitie!’
‘O every bridle that you shall have,
And its gude lord shall have three.’
12
The nexten steed that he drew out
He was the raven-black;
His een was glancin in his head
Like wild-fire in a slack;
‘Get here a boy,’ says young Sir Hugh,
‘Cast on the saddle on that.’
13
O brands there brak, and great horse lap,
But still sat he on he:
‘A brand, a brand,’ says young Sir Hugh,
‘A brand for charitie!’
‘O every brand that you sall have,
And its gude lord sall have three.’
14
He gave him a dep unto the heart,
And over the steed fell he:
‘I rather had gane you money,’ she says,
‘And free lands too,
That ye had foughten an hour wi him,
And than had latten him be.’
15
‘If ye hae ony mair shepherd’s sins,’ he says,
‘Or cooks i your kitchie,
Or ony mair dogs to fell,
Ye’ll bring them here to me;
And gin they be a true-hearted Scotsman,
They’ll no be scorned by thee.’
A.
43. 100.
51,3. They.
61. walls? There is a tag at the end of this word in the MS. Furnivall.
164. of 3.
174. MS., tylpe, with the l crossed at top. Furnivall.
181,3. 2d
..
182. I should read berry-browne were it not for verry blacke in 192.
191,3. 3d
..
253. 3.
262. 30tye.
273. 5 to 4.
291. 2d
..
304. 13 or 14.
324. No emendation of this unintelligible line occurs to me.
332. 4.
333. therof.
334. 2 or 3: cf. 304, and observe the metre.
353. for on: seitt or settt.
And for & always.
C.
144. too: pronounced tee.
15. The shepherd’s son was the Queen’s own son: comment of the reciter. I do not understand the last two lines; indeed they are obviously corrupt.
159
DURHAM FIELD
‘Durham ffeilde,’ Percy MS., p. 245; Hales and Furnivall, II, 190.
While Edward Third was absent in France, and for the time engaged with the siege of Calais, David Bruce, the young king of Scotland, at the instance of Philip of Valois, but also because he “yearned to see fighting,” invaded England with a large army. Having taken by storm the Border castle of Liddel, he was advised by William of Douglas to turn back, which, it was represented by Douglas, he could do with credit after this success. Other lords said that Douglas had filled his bags, but theirs were toom, and that the way lay open to London, for there were no men left in England but souters, skinners, and traders.[[152]] The Scots moved on to Durham, and encamped in a park not far from the town, in a bad position. In the mean while a powerful force had been collected by the northern nobility and the English churchmen, without the knowledge of the Scots. William of Douglas, going out to forage, rode straight to the ground where his foes lay, and in the attempt to retreat lost five hundred of his men. King David drew up his army in three divisions: one under his own command, another under the Earl of Murray and William Douglas, the third under the Steward of Scotland and the Earl of March. The operations of the Scots were impeded by the ditches and fences that traversed the ground on which they stood, and their situation made them an almost helpless mark for the ten thousand archers of the English army. Murray’s men were completely routed by a charge of cavalry, and their leader killed. The English then fell upon the King’s division, which, after a desperate fight, was “vanquished utterly.” David, who had received two wounds from arrows, was taken prisoner by John Copland, “by force, not yolden,” after knocking out two of the Englishman’s teeth with a knife. Wyntoun’s Chronykil, ed. Laing, II, 470 ff; Scotichronicon, ed. Goodall, II, 339 ff. The battle was fought on the 17th of October, 1346.
According to the English chronicle of Lanercost, John of Douglas, ‘germanus domini Willelmi,’ fought with the Earl of Murray in the first Scottish division, and the Earl of Buchan was associated with King David in the command of the second. The English were also in three bodies. The leaders of the first were the Earl of Angus, ‘inter omnes Angliæ nobilis persona,’ Henry Percy, Ralph Neville, and Henry Scrope; the Archbishop of York led the second; Mowbray, Rokeby, and John of Copland were in the third. Ed. Stevenson, pp. 349–51.
David, in the ballad, proposes to himself nothing less than the conquest of England and the distribution of the territory among his chief men. He is not a youth of twenty-two; William Douglas has served him four and thirty years. Still he will brook no advice, and kills his own squire for warning him of the danger of his enterprise. The Earl of Angus is to lead the van; but Angus, as we have seen, was engaged on the other side. The title of Angus might have deceived the minstrel, but it was hardly to be expected that Neville should be turned into a Scot as he is in st. 17. Angus, and also ‘Vaughan,’ that is Baughan, or Buchan,[[153]] are to be in the king’s coat-armor, sts 11, 13, imitating Blunt and the rest at Shrewsbury, and the five false Richmonds at Bosworth. James[[154]] Douglas offers to lead the van, 14; so does William Douglas in 21. An Englishman who does not know a Neville would surely not be very precise about a Douglas, and it must be conceded that the Douglases have not always been kept perfectly distinct by historians. James Douglas, whoever he may be supposed to be, “went before;” that is, he plays the part which belongs historically to the Knight of Liddesdale, loses all his men, and returns, with an arrow in his thigh, to report that one Englishman is worth five Scots: 26–33.[[155]] But the Scots, even at that rate, have the advantage, for a herald, sent out to reconnoitre, tells their king that they are ten to one.
The commanders on the English side are the Bishop of Durham, Earl Percy, the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Carlisle, and “Lord Fluwilliams.”[[156]] The Bishop of Durham orders that no man shall fight before he has ‘served his God,’ and five hundred priests say mass in the field who afterwards take part in the fray. (The monks of Durham, Knyghton tells us, had made terms with the Scots, and were to pay a thousand pounds for ransom-money the next day; and so, when they saw the Scots yielding, they raised their voices in a Te Deum, which sounded to the clouds and quickened the courage of the English.) The king of Scots is wounded by an arrow through his nose, and, stepping aside to bleed, is taken prisoner by John of Copland, whom he first smites angrily. Copland sets the king on a palfrey and leads him to London. King Edward, newly arrived from France, asks him how he likes the shepherds, millers, and priests. There’s not a yeoman in England, says David, but he is worth a Scottish knight. Aye, says King Edward, laughing, that is because you were fighting against the right. Shortly after this the Black Prince brings the king of France captive from the field of Poitiers. Says David to John, Welcome, brother, but I would I had gone to Rome! And I, would I had gone to Jerusalem! replies John. Thus ends the battle of Durham, fought, says the minstrel, on a morning of May, sts 27, 64, and within the same month as the battles of Crécy and Poitiers.[[157]] Though Poitiers was fought ten years after Durham, the king of Scots and the king of France no doubt met in London, for John was taken thither in April, 1357, and David was not released from his captivity until the following November.
Stanza 18 affords us an upper limit for a date. Lord Hambleton is said to be of the king’s kin full nigh. James Hamilton, the first lord, married the princess Mary, sister of James III, in 1474, and his descendants were the next heirs to the throne after the Stewarts, whose line was for a time but barely kept up.
1
Lordinges, listen, and hold you still;
Hearken to me a litle;
I shall you tell of the fairest battell
That euer in England beffell.
2
For as it befell in Edward the Thirds dayes,
In England, where he ware the crowne,
Then all the cheefe chiualry of England
They busked and made them bowne.
3
They chosen all the best archers
That in England might be found,
And all was to fight with the king of Ffrance,
Within a litle stounde.
4
And when our king was ouer the water,
And on the salt sea gone,
Then tydings into Scotland came
That all England was gone.
5
Bowes and arrowes they were all forth,
At home was not left a man
But shepards and millers both,
And preists with shauen crownes.
6
Then the king of Scotts in a study stood,
As he was a man of great might;
He sware he wold hold his parlament in leeue London,
If he cold ryde there right.
7
Then bespake a squier, of Scottland borne,
And sayd, My leege, apace,
Before you come to leeue London,
Full sore you’le rue that race.
8
Ther beene bold yeomen in merry England,
Husbandmen stiffe and strong;
Sharpe swords they done weare,
Bearen bowes and arrowes longe.
9
The King was angrye at that word;
A long sword out hee drew,
And there befor his royall companye
His owne squier hee slew.
10
Hard hansell had the Scottes that day,
That wrought them woe enoughe,
For then durst not a Scott speake a word
Ffor hanging att a boughe.
11
‘The Earle of Anguish, where art thou?
In my coate-armor thou shalt bee,
And thou shalt lead the forward
Thorrow the English countrye.
12
‘Take thee Yorke,’ then sayd the King,
‘In stead wheras it doth stand;
I’le make thy eldest sonne after thee
Heyre of all Northumberland.
13
‘The Earle of Vaughan, where be yee?
In my coate-armor thou shalt bee;
The high Peak and Derbyshire
I giue it thee to thy fee.’
14
Then came in famous Douglas,
Saies, What shall my meede bee?
And I’le lead the vawward, lord,
Thorow the English countrye.
15
‘Take thee Worster,’ sayd the King,
‘Tuxburye, Killingworth, Burton vpon Trent;
Doe thou not say another day
But I haue giuen thee lands and rent.
16
‘Sir Richard of Edenborrow, where are yee?
A wise man in this warr!
I’le giue thee Bristow and the shire
The time that wee come there.
17
‘My lord Nevill, where beene yee?
You must in this warres bee;
I’le giue thee Shrewsburye,’ saies the King,
‘And Couentrye faire and free.
18
‘My lord of Hambleton, where art thou?
Thou art of my kin full nye;
I’le giue thee Lincolne and Lincolneshire,
And that’s enouge for thee.’
19
By then came in William Douglas,
As breeme as any bore;
He kneeled him downe vpon his knees,
In his hart he sighed sore.
20
Saies, I haue serued you, my louelye leege,
This thirty winters and four,
And in the Marches betweene England and Scottland
I haue beene wounded and beaten sore.
21
For all the good service that I haue done,
What shall my meed bee?
And I will lead the vanward
Thorrow the English countrye.
22
‘Aske on, Douglas,’ said the king,
‘And granted it shall bee:’
‘Why then, I aske litle London,’ saies William Douglas,
‘Gotten giff that it bee.’
23
The King was wrath, and rose away,
Saies, Nay, that cannot bee!
For that I will keepe for my cheefe chamber,
Gotten if it bee.
24
But take thee North Wales and Weschaster,
The cuntrye all round about,
And rewarded thou shalt bee,
Of that take thou noe doubt.
25
Fiue score knights he made on a day,
And dubbd them with his hands;
Rewarded them right worthilye
With the townes in merry England.
26
And when the fresh knights they were made,
To battell the buske them bowne;
Iames Douglas went before,
And he thought to haue wonnen him shoone.
27
But the were mett in a morning of May
With the comminaltye of litle England;
But there scaped neuer a man away,
Through the might of Christës hand.
28
But all onely Iames Douglas;
In Durham in the ffeild
An arrow stroke him in the thye;
Fast flinge[s he] towards the King.
29
The King looked toward litle Durham,
Saies, All things is not well!
For Iames Dowglas beares an arrow in his thye,
The head of it is of steele.
30
‘How now Iames?’ then said the King,
‘How now, how may this bee?
And where beene all thy merrymen
That thou tooke hence with thee?’
31
‘But cease, my king,’ saies Iames Douglas,
‘Aliue is not left a man!’
‘Now by my faith,’ saies the king of Scottes,
‘That gate was euill gone.
32
‘But I’le reuenge thy quarrell well,
And of that thou may be faine;
For one Scott will beate fiue Englishmen,
If the meeten them on the plaine.’
33
‘Now hold your tounge,’ saies Iames Douglas,
‘For in faith that is not soe;
For one English man is worth fiue Scotts,
When they meeten together thoe.
34
‘For they are as egar men to fight
As a faulcon vpon a pray;
Alas! if euer the winne the vanward,
There scapes noe man away.’
35
‘O peace thy talking,’ said the King,
‘They bee but English knaues,
But shepards and millers both,
And preists with their staues.’
36
The King sent forth one of his heralds of armes
To vew the Englishmen:
‘Be of good cheere,’ the herald said,
‘For against one wee bee ten.’
37
‘Who leades those ladds?’ said the king of Scottes,
‘Thou herald, tell thou mee:’
The herald said, The Bishopp of Durham
Is captaine of that companye.
38
‘For the Bishopp hath spred the King‘s banner,
And to battell he buskes him bowne:’
‘I sweare by St. Andrewes bones,’ saies the King,
‘I’le rapp that preist on the crowne.’
39
The King looked towards litle Durham,
And that hee well beheld,
That the Earle Percy was well armed,
With his battell-axe entred the feild.
40
The King looket againe towards litle Durham,
Four ancyents there see hee;
There were to standards, six in a valley,
He cold not see them with his eye.
41
My Lord of Yorke was one of them,
My Lord of Carlile was the other,
And my Lord Ffluwilliams,
The one came with the other.
42
The Bishopp of Durham commanded his men,
And shortlye he them bade,
That neuer a man shold goe to the feild to fight
Till he had serued his God.
43
Fiue hundred preists said masse that day
In Durham in the feild,
And afterwards, as I hard say,
They bare both speare and sheeld.
44
The Bishopp of Durham orders himselfe to fight,
With his battell-axe in his hand;
He said, This day now I will fight
As long as I can stand!
45
‘And soe will I,’ sayd my Lord of Carlile,
‘In this faire morning gay;’
‘And soe will I,’ said my Lord Ffluwilliams,
‘For Mary, that myld may.’
46
Our English archers bent their bowes.
Shortlye and anon;
They shott ouer the Scottish oast
And scantlye toucht a man.
47
‘Hold downe your hands,’ sayd the Bishopp of Durham,
‘My archers good and true:’
The second shoote that the shott,
Full sore the Scottes itt rue.
48
The Bishopp of Durham spoke on hye,
That both partyes might heare:
‘Be of good cheere, my merrymen all,
The Scotts flyen, and changen there cheere.’
49
But as the saidden, soe the didden,
They fell on heapës hye;
Our Englishmen laid on with their bowes,
As fast as they might dree.
50
The king of Scotts in a studye stood
Amongst his companye;
An arrow stoke him thorrow the nose,
And thorrow his armorye.
51
The King went to a marsh-side
And light beside his steede;
He leaned him downe on his sword-hilts,
To let his nose bleede.
52
There followed him a yeaman of merry England,
His name was Iohn of Coplande:
‘Yeeld thee, traytor!’ saies Coplande then,
‘Thy liffe lyes in my hand.’
53
‘How shold I yeeld me,’ sayes the King,
‘And thou art noe gentleman?’
‘Noe, by my troth,’ sayes Copland there,
‘I am but a poore yeaman.
54
‘What art thou better then I, Sir King?
Tell me if that thou can!
What art thou better then I, Sir King,
Now we be but man to man?’
55
The King smote angerly at Copland then,
Angerly in that stonde;
And then Copland was a bold yeaman,
And bore the King to the ground.
56
He sett the King upon a palfrey,
Himselfe upon a steede;
He tooke him by the bridle-rayne,
Towards London he can him lead.
57
And when to London that he came,
The King from Ffrance was new come home,
And there unto the king of Scottes
He sayd these words anon.
58
‘How like you my shepards and my millers?
My priests with shaven crownes?’
‘By my fayth, they are the sorest fighting men
That ever I mett on the ground.
59
‘There was never a yeaman in merry England
But he was worth a Scottish knight:’
‘I, by my troth,’ said King Edward, and laughe,
‘For you fought all against the right.’
60
But now the prince of merry England,
Worthilye under his sheelde,
Hath taken the king of Ffrance,
At Poytiers in the ffeelde.
61
The prince did present his father with that food,
The louely king off Ffrance,
And fforward of his iourney he is gone:
God send us all good chance!
62
‘You are welcome, brother!’ sayd the king of Scotts, to the king of Ffrance,
‘For I am come hither to soone;
Christ leeve that I had taken my way
Unto the court of Roome!’
63
‘And soe wold I,’ said the king of Ffrance,
‘When I came over the streame,
That I had taken my iourney
Unto Ierusalem!’
64
Thus ends the battell of ffaire Durham,
In one morning of May,
The battell of Cressey, and the battle of Potyers,
All within one monthës day.
65
Then was welthe and welfare in mery England,
Solaces, game, and glee,
And every man loved other well,
And the King loved good yeomanrye.
66
But God that made the grasse to growe,
And leaves on greenwoode tree,
Now save and keepe our noble king,
And maintaine good yeomanry!
And for & throughout.
11. Perhaps lesten: yo.
12. a litle spell?
21. 3ds.
83. sharpes.
113. forward has a tag to the d. Furnivall.
121. thy for thee.
131. in Earle the l is made over an e. Furnivall.
152. Tuxburye doubtful in the MS.
202. 30: 4.
311. Janes.
323, 333. 5.
After 39. 2d part.
402. 4.
403. 6.
431. 500.
441. Durhan.
473. 2d.
621. brothers.
66. Pencil note in Percy’s late hand.
This and 2 following leaves being unfortunately torn out, in sending the subsequent piece [‘King Estmere’] to the press, the conclusion of the preceding ballad has been carefully transcribed; and indeed the fragments of the other leaves ought to have been so.
160
THE KNIGHT OF LIDDESDALE
Hume of Godscroft, History of the Houses of Douglas and Angus, 1644, p. 77.
William Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale, who figures in the foregoing ballad, was assassinated in 1353, while hunting in Ettrick forest, by his kinsman and godson, Lord William Douglas.
According to the Scotichronicon, the motive was said to be revenge for Alexander Ramsay, one of the first men among the Scots, whom Liddesdale had assaulted while he was holding a court, wounded, carried off, and suffered to die by starving; and for Sir David Berkeley, whom Liddesdale was charged with procuring to be murdered in 1350, in return for the death of his brother, Sir John Douglas, brought to pass by Berkeley. (Scotichronicon, ed. Goodall, II, 348, 335, XIV, 8, XIII, 50, XIV, 7.)
Hume of Godscroft considers the motive assigned to be quite unnatural, and at best a pretence. A ballad known to him gave a different account. “The Lord of Liddesdale, being at his pastime, hunting in Attrick forest, is beset by William Earle of Douglas, and such as hee had ordained for that purpose, and there assailed, wounded, and slain, beside Galsewood, in the yeare 1353; upon a jealousie that the Earle had conceived of him with his lady, as the report goeth, for so sayes the old song.” After citing the stanza which follows, Hume goes on to say: “The song also declareth how shee did write her love-letters to Liddisdale, to disswade him from that hunting. It tells likewise the manner of the taking of his men, and his owne killing at Galsewood, and how hee was carried the first night to Lindin Kirk, a mile from Selkirk, and was buried within the Abbacie of Melrosse.”
“The sole basis for this statement of Hume’s,” says Sir William Fraser, The Douglas Book, I, 223 f, 1885, “seems to be the anonymous Border ballad, part of which he quotes, to which he adds the tradition that the lady wrote to her lover to dissuade him from that hunting. Apart from the fact that this tradition is opposed to contemporary history, which states that Sir William was wholly unsuspicious of danger, the story told by Godscroft is otherwise erroneous. He assumes that Douglas was made earl in 1346, and that he was married to a daughter of the Earl of March, neither of which assumptions is true. Douglas was not created earl until 26th January, 1357–8, and there was therefore no ‘Countess of Douglas’ to wait for the Knight of Liddesdale. Douglas’s only wife was Lady Margaret of Mar, who survived him. The exact date of their marriage has not been ascertained, but it is certain that Douglas had no countess of the family of March in 1353, while it is doubtful if at that date he was married at all. Popular tradition is therefore at fault in assigning matrimonial jealousy as a motive for killing the Knight of Liddesdale.”
“Some fragments of this ballad are still current, and will be found in the ensuing work,” says Scott, Minstrelsy, I, 221, note, ed. 1833. It may be that Sir Walter became convinced that these fragments were not genuine; at any rate, they do not appear in his collection.
The Countesse of Douglas out of her boure she came,
And loudly there that she did call:
‘It is for the Lord of Liddesdale
That I let all these teares downe fall.’
161
THE BATTLE OF OTTERBURN
A. a. Cotton MS. Cleopatra, C. iv, leaf 24, of about 1550. b. Harleian MS. 293, leaf 52. Both in the British Museum.
B. a. Herd’s MSS, I, 149, II, 30; Herd’s Scottish Songs, 1776, I, 153. b. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1802, I, 31.
C. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1833, I, 354.
D. Finlay’s Scottish Ballads, I, xviii f., two stanzas.
E. Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, p. lxxi, note 30, one stanza.
A a was first printed in the fourth edition of Percy’s Reliques, 1794, I, 18, and A b in the first edition, 1765, I, 18.
By far the most circumstantial account of the battle of Otterburn is given by Froissart (Chroniques, Buchon, XI, 362 ff, chap. 115 ff), and his highly felicitous narrative may be briefly summarized as follows.
The quarrels of Richard II with his uncles and a consequent feud between the great northern families of Neville and Percy furnished the Scots an inviting opportunity for an invasion of England on a large scale. Under the pretext of a festive meeting, a preliminary conference of barons and knights was held at Aberdeen, and it was there agreed that they should muster, the middle of August, 1388, at a place on the border near Jedburgh, with such forces as they could command. In all this they took no counsel with the king, who was then past seventy, and was regarded as of no account for their purposes. The result was a larger gathering than had been seen for sixty years, quite twelve hundred lances and forty thousand ordinary fighting-men.
The Earl of Northumberland and his sons, the Seneschal of York, and the Captain of Berwick had heard of the intended meeting at Aberdeen, and had sent heralds and minstrels thither, to get further information. These agents reported that all Scotland was astir, and that there was to be another parley in the forest of Jedburgh. The barons and knights of Northumberland made due preparations, and, the better to keep these secret, remained quiet in their houses, ready to sally as soon as they learned that the Scots were in motion. Feeling themselves incapable of coping with so large a body as had been collected, they decided upon a simultaneous counter-raid, and that from the east or from the west, according as the enemy should take the road from the west or the east. Of this plan of the English the Scots obtained knowledge from a spy whom they had captured, and to foil it they divided their army, directing the main body towards Carlisle, under command of Archibald Douglas, of the Earl of Fife, son of the king, and many other nobles, while a detachment of three or four hundred picked men-at-arms, supported by two thousand stout fellows, partly archers, all well mounted,[[158]] and commanded by James, Earl of Douglas, the Earl of March and Dunbar, and the Earl of Murray, were to strike for Newcastle, cross the river, and burn and ravage the bishopric of Durham.
The eastern division (with which alone we are concerned) carried out their program to the letter. They advanced at speed, stopping for nothing, and meeting with no resistance, and the burning and pillaging had begun in Durham before the Earl of Northumberland knew of their arrival. Fire and smoke soon showed what was going on. The earl dispatched his sons Henry and Ralph Percy to Newcastle, where the whole country rallied, gentle and simple; he himself remaining at Alnwick, in the hope of being able to enclose the Scots, when they should take the way north, between two bodies of English. The Scots attained to the very gates of Durham; then, having burned every unfortified town between there and Newcastle, they turned northward, with a large booty, repassed the Tyne, and halted at Newcastle. There was skirmishing for two days before the city, and in the course of a long combat between Douglas and Henry Percy the Scot got possession of the Englishman’s pennon. This he told Percy he would raise on the highest point of his castle at Dalkeith; Percy answered that he should never accomplish that vaunt, nor should he carry the pennon out of Northumberland. ‘Come then to-night and win it back,’ said Douglas; ‘I will plant it before my tent.’ It was then late, and the fighting ceased; but the Scots kept good guard, looking for Percy to come that very night for his pennon. Percy, however, was constrained to let that night pass.
The Scots broke up their camp early the next morning and withdrew homewards. Taking and burning the tower and town of Ponteland on their way, they moved on to Otterburn, thirty miles northwest from Newcastle, where there was a strong castle or tower, in marshy ground, which they assailed for a day without success. At the end of the day they held a council, and the greater part were in favor of making for Carlisle in the morning, to rejoin their countrymen. But the Earl of Douglas would not hear of this; Henry Percy had said that he would challenge his pennon; they would stay two or three days more and assault the castle, and see if Percy would be as good as his word. So the Scots encamped at their ease, making themselves huts of trees, and availing themselves of the marshes to fortify their position. At the entrance of the marshes, which was on the Newcastle road, they put their servants and foragers, and they drove their cattle into the bogs.
Henry Percy was greatly vexed and mortified at the loss of his pennon, and in the evening he represented to the knights and squires of Northumberland how much it concerned his honor to make good what he had said to Douglas, that the pennon should never be carried out of England. But these gentlemen were all convinced that Douglas was backed by the whole power of Scotland, of which they had seen only the van, by forty thousand men who could handle them at their will; at any rate, it was better to lose a pennon than two or three hundred knights and squires, and expose the country to risk. As for the loss of the pennon, it was one of the chances of arms; Douglas had won it handsomely; another time Percy would get as much from him, or more.[[159]] To this the Percys were fain to yield. Later there came scouts with information that Douglas was encamped at Otterburn, that the main army was not acting in conjunction with him, and that his forces, all told, did not exceed three thousand. Henry Percy was overjoyed at the news, and cried, To horse! by the faith I owe to God and my father, I will go seek my pennon, and the Scots shall be ousted before this night is over. The evening of that same day the Bishop of Durham was expected to arrive with a great many men, but Henry Percy would not wait. Six hundred lances and eight thousand foot were enough, he said, to serve the Scots, who had but three hundred lances and two thousand other folk. The English set forth as soon as they could get together, by the road which the Scots had taken, but were not able to move very fast by reason of their infantry.
Some of the Scots knights were supping, and more were asleep (for they had had hard work at the assault on the tower, and were meaning to be up betimes to renew the attack), when the English were upon the camp, crying, Percy! Percy! There was naturally great alarm. The English made their attack at that part of the camp where, as before said, the servants and foragers were lodged. This was, however, strong, and the knights sent some of their men to hold it while they themselves were arming. Then the Scots formed, each under his own earl and captain. It was night, but the weather was fair and the moon shining. The Scots did not go straight for the English, but took their way along by the marshes and by a hill, according to a plan which they had previously arranged against the case that their camp should be attacked. The English made short work with the underlings, but, as they advanced, always found fresh people to keep up a skirmish. And now the Scots, having executed a flank movement, fell upon their assailants in a mass, from a quarter where nothing was looked for, shouting their battle-cries with one voice. The English were astounded, but closed up, and gave them Percy! for Douglas! Then began a fell battle. The English, being in excess and eager to win, beat back the Scots, who were at the point of being worsted. James Douglas, who was young, strong, and keen for glory, sent his banner to the front, with the cry, Douglas! Douglas! Henry and Ralph Percy, indignant against the earl for the loss of the pennon, turned in the direction of the cry, responding, Percy! Knights and squires had no thought but to fight as long as spears and axes would hold out. It was a hand-to-hand fight; the parties were so close together that the archers of neither could operate; neither side budged, but both stood firm. The Scots showed extraordinary valor, for the English were three to one; but be this said without disparagement of the English, who have always done their duty.
As has been said, the English were so strong that they were forcing their foes back, and this James Douglas saw. To regain the ground, he took a two-handed axe, plunged into the thickest, and opened a path before him; for there was none so well armed in helmet or plate as not to fear his strokes. So he made his way till he was hit by three spears, all at once, one in the shoulder, another in the chest, another in the thigh, and borne to the ground. The English did not know that it was Earl Douglas that had fallen; they would have been so much elated that the day would have been theirs. Neither did the Scots; if they had, they would have given up in despair. Douglas could not raise himself from the ground, for he was wounded to the death. The crush about him was great, but his people had kept as close to him as they could. His cousin, Sir James Lindsay, reached the spot where he was lying, and with Lindsay Sir John and Sir Walter Sinclair, and other knights and squires. Near him, and severely wounded, they found his chaplain, William of North Berwick, who had kept up with his master the whole night, axe in hand; also Sir Robert Hart, with five wounds from lances and other weapons. Sir John Sinclair asked the earl, Cousin, how fares it with you? ‘Indifferently,’ said the earl; ‘praised be God, few of my ancestors have died in their beds. Avenge me, for I count myself dead. Walter and John Sinclair, up with my banner, and cry, Douglas! and let neither friend nor foe know of my state.’ The two Sinclairs and Sir John Lindsay did as they were bidden, raised the banner, and shouted, Douglas! They were far to the front, but others, who were behind, hearing the shout loudly repeated, charged the English with such valor as to drive them beyond the place where Douglas now lay dead, and came up with the banner which Sir John Lindsay was bearing, begirt and supported by good Scots knights and squires. The Earl of Murray came up too, and the Earl of March and Dunbar as well, and they all, as it were, took new life when they saw that they were together and that the English were giving ground. Once more was the combat renewed. The English had the disadvantage of the fatigue of a rapid march from Newcastle, by reason whereof their will was better than their wind, whereas the Scots were fresh; and the effects appeared in this last charge, in which the Scots drove the English so far back that they could not recover their lost ground. Sir Ralph Percy had already been taken prisoner. Like Douglas, he had advanced so far as to be surrounded, and being so badly wounded that his hose and boots were full of blood, he surrendered to Sir John Maxwell. Henry Percy, after a valorous fight with the Lord Montgomery, became prisoner to the Scottish knight.
It was a hard battle and well fought, but such are the turns of fortune that, although the English were the greater number, and all bold men and practised in arms, and although they attacked the enemy valiantly, and at first drove them back a good distance, the Scots in the end won the day. The losses of the English were put by their antagonists at 1040 prisoners, 1860 killed in the fight and the pursuit, and more than 1000 wounded; those of the Scots were about 100 killed and 200 captured.[[160]] The Scots retired without molestation, taking the way to Melrose Abbey, where they caused the Earl of Douglas to be interred, and his obsequies to be reverently performed. Over his body a tomb of stone was built, and above this was raised the earl’s banner.
Such is the story of the battle of Otterburn, fought on Wednesday, the 19th day of August,[[161]] in the year of grace 1388, as related by Froissart (with animated tributes to the hardihood and generosity of both parties) upon the authority of knights and squires actually present, both English and Scots, and also French.
Wyntoun, ix, 840–54, 900f (Laing, III, 36f) says that the alarm was given the Scots by a young man that came right fast riding (cf. A 20, 21, B 4, C 17), and that many of the Scots were able to arm but imperfectly; among these Earl James, who was occupied with getting his men into order and was “reckless of his arming,” and the Earl of Murray, who forgot his basnet (cf. C 20). Earl James was slain no man knew in what way. Bower, Scotichronicon, II, 405, agrees with Wyntoun. English chroniclers, Knyghton, col. 2728, Walsingham (Riley, II, 176[[162]]), Malverne, the continuator of Higden (Polychronicon, Lumby, IX, 185), assert that Percy killed Douglas with his own hand, Knyghton adding that Percy also wounded the Earl of Murray to the point of death.
That a Scots ballad of Otterburn was popular in the sixteenth century appears from The Complaynte of Scotlande, 1549, where a line is cited, The Perssee and the Mongumrye met, p. 65, ed. Murray: cf. B 91, C 301.[[163]] In the following century Hume of Godscroft writes:[[164]] The Scots song made of Otterburn telleth the time, about Lammasse, and the occasion, to take preyes out of England; also the dividing of the armies betwixt the Earles of Fife and Douglas, and their severall journeys, almost as in the authentick history. It beginneth thus:
It fell about the Lammas tide,
When yeomen wonne their hay,
The doughtie Douglas gan to ride,
In England to take a prey.
Motherwell maintains that the ballad which passes as English is the Scots song altered to please the other party. His argument, however, is far from conclusive. “That The Battle of Otterbourne was thus dealt with by an English transcriber appears obvious, for it studiously omits dilating on Percy’s capture, while it accurately details his combat with Douglas;” that is to say, the ballad as we have it is just what a real English ballad would have been, both as to what it enlarges on and what it slights. “Whereas it would appear that in the genuine Scottish version the capture of Percy formed a prominent incident, seeing it is the one by which the author of The Complaynt refers to the ballad [The Perssee and the Mongumrye met]:” from which Motherwell was at liberty to deduce that B and C represent the genuine Scottish version, several stanzas being given to the capture of Percy in these; but this he would not care to do, on account of the great inferiority of these forms. A Scotsman could alter an English ballad “to suit political feeling and flatter national vanity,” as Motherwell says the Scots did with Chevy Chace. (See further on, p. 303.) There is no reason to doubt that a Scots ballad of Otterburn once existed, much better than the two inferior, and partly suspicious, things which were printed by Herd and Scott, and none to doubt that an English minstrel would deal freely with any Scots ballad which he could turn to his purpose; but then there is no evidence, positive or probable, that this particular ballad was “adapted” from the Scots song made of Otterburn; rather are we to infer that the few verses of B and C which repeat or resemble the text of A were borrowed from A, and, as likely as not, Hume’s first stanza too.[[165]]
A, in the shape in which it has come down to us, must have a date long subsequent to the battle, as the grammatical forms show; still, what interested the borderers a hundred years or more after the event must have interested people of the time still more, and it would be against the nature of things that there should not have been a ballad as early as 1400. The ballad we have is likely to have been modernized from such a predecessor, but I am not aware that there is anything in the text to confirm such a supposition, unless one be pleased to make much of the Wednesday of the eighteenth stanza. The concluding stanza implies that Percy is dead, and he was killed at Shrewsbury, in 1403.
A. 3. Hoppertope hyll, says Percy, is a corruption for Ottercap Hill (now Ottercaps Hill) in the parish of Kirk Whelpington, Tynedale Ward, Northumberland. Rodclyffe Cragge (now Rothley Crags) is a cliff near Rodeley, a small village in the parish of Hartburn, in Morpeth Ward, south-east of Ottercap; and Green Leyton, corruptly Green Lynton, is another small village, south-east of Rodeley, in the same parish. Reliques, 1794, I, 22.
8. Henry Percy seems to have been in his twenty-third year. As for his having been a march-man “all his days,” he is said to have begun fighting ten years before, in 1378, and to have been appointed Governor of Berwick and Warden of the Marches in 1385: White, History of the Battle of Otterburn, p. 67 f. Walsingham calls both Percy and Douglas young men, and Froissart speaks at least twice of Douglas as young. Fraser, The Douglas Book, 1885, I, 292, says that Douglas was probably born in 1358. White, as above, p. 91, would make him somewhat older.
17. The chivalrous trait in this stanza, and that in the characteristic passage 36–44, are peculiar to this transcendently heroic ballad.
26, 27. The earldom of Menteith at the time of this battle, says Percy, following Douglas’s Peerage, was possessed by Robert Stewart, Earl of Fife, third son of King Robert II; but the Earl of Fife was in command of the main body and not present. (As Douglas married a daughter of King Robert II, the Earl of Fife was not his uncle, but his brother-in-law.) The mention of Huntley, says Percy, shows that the ballad was not composed before 1449; for in that year Alexander, Lord of Gordon and Huntley, was created Earl of Huntley by King James II. The Earl of Buchan at that time was Alexander Stewart, fourth son of the king. Reliques, 1794, I, 36.
352. ‘The cronykle will not layne.’ So in ‘The Rose of England,’ No 166, st. 224, ‘The cronickles of this will not lye,’ and also 172; and in ‘Flodden Field,’ appendix, p. 360, st. 1214.
43, 49. It will be remembered that the archers had no part in this fight.
45, 46. “The ancient arms of Douglas are pretty accurately emblazoned in the former stanza, and if the readings were, The crowned harte, and, Above stode starres thre, it would be minutely exact at this day. As for the Percy family, one of their ancient badges or cognizances was a white lyon statant, and the silver crescent continues to be used by them to this day. They also give three luces argent for one of their quarters.” Percy, as above, p. 30.
48. So far as I know, St George does not appear as Our Lady’s knight in any legendary, though he is so denominated or described elsewhere in popular tradition. So in the spell for night-mare, which would naturally be of considerable antiquity,
S. George, S. George, Our Ladies knight,
He walkt by day, so did he by night, etc.:
Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, as reprinted by Nicholson, p. 68, ed. 1665, p. 48; and Fletcher’s Monsieur Thomas, iv. 6, Dyce, VII, 388. In Nicholas Udall’s ‘Roister Doister,’ known to be as old as 1551, Matthew Merrygreek exclaims, “What then? sainct George to borow, Our Ladie’s knight!” Ed. W. D. Cooper, p. 77, Shakespeare Society, 1847. The Danish ballad of St George, ‘St Jørgen og Dragen,’ Grundtvig, No 103, II, 559 ff, the oldest version of which is from a 16th century MS., begins, “Knight St George, thou art my man” (svend); and in the second version, George, declining the princess whom he has rescued, says he has vowed to Mary to be her servant.[[166]] In the corresponding Swedish ballad, of the same age as the Danish, George is called Mary’s knight (Maria honom riddare gjorde, st. 2): Geijer and Afzelius, ed. Bergström, II, 402. This is also his relation in German ballads: Meinert, p. 254; Ditfurth, I, 55, No 68.[[167]]
B. 1, 9, 14 nearly resemble A 1, 50, 68, and must have the same origin. In B 9 Douglas is changed to Montgomery; in 14 Douglas is wrongly said to have been buried on the field, instead of at Melrose Abbey, where his tomb is still to be seen.
7 is founded upon a tradition reported by Hume of Godscroft: “There are that say that he was not slain by the enemy, but by one of his owne men, a groome of his chamber, whom he had struck the day before with a truncheon in the ordering of the battell, because hee saw him make somewhat slowly to; and they name this man John Bickerton of Luffenesse, who left a part of his armour behinde unfastned, and when hee was in the greatest conflict, this servant of his came behinde his back and slew him thereat.” Ed. 1644, p. 105.
11. The summons to surrender to a braken-bush is not in the style of fighting-men or fighting-days, and would justify Hotspur’s contempt of metre-ballad-mongers.
12, 13. B agrees with Froissart in making a Montgomery to be the captor of Henry Percy, whereas A represents that Montgomery was taken prisoner and exchanged for Percy. In The Hunting of the Cheviot Sir Hugh Montgomery kills Percy, and in return is shot by a Northumberland archer.
C. Scott does not give a distinct account of this version. He says that he had obtained two copies, since the publication of the earlier edition, “from the recitation of old persons residing at the head of Ettrick Forest, by which the story is brought out and completed in a manner much more correspondent to the true history.” C is, in fact, a combination of four copies; the two from Ettrick Forest, B a, and the MS. copy used in B b to “correct” Herd.
8, it scarcely requires to be said, is spurious, modern in diction and in conception.
19. Perhaps derived from Hume of Godscroft rather than from tradition. When Douglas was dying, according to this historian,[[168]] he made these last requests of certain of his kinsmen: “First, that yee keep my death close both from our owne folke and from the enemy; then, that ye suffer not my standard to be lost or cast downe; and last, that ye avenge my death, and bury me at Melrosse with my father. If I could hope for these things,” he added, “I should die with the greater contentment; for long since I heard a prophesie that a dead man should winne a field, and I hope in God it shall be I.” Ed. 1644, p. 100.
22 must be derived from the English version. As the excellent editor of The Ballad Minstrelsy of Scotland, Glasgow, 1871, remarks, “no Scottish minstrel would ever have dreamt of inventing such a termination to the combat between these two redoubted heroes ... as much at variance with history as it is repulsive to national feeling:” p. 431.
Genealogical matters, in this and the following ballad, are treated, not always to complete satisfaction, in Bishop Percy’s notes, Reliques, 1794, I, 34 ff; Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1833, I, 351, 363 ff: White’s History of the Battle of Otterburn, p. 67 ff; The Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire, I, 66 f.
A is translated by Doenniges, p. 87; C by Grundtvig, Engelske og skotske Folkeviser, No 12, p. 74, and by Talvj, Charakteristik, p. 537.