AGAINST THE SCOTTES.
The battle of Flodden, one of the most disastrous events in Scottish history, has been rendered so familiar to readers of our own day by the poem of Marmion, that a particular account of it here is unnecessary. It took place on September 9th, 1513. The English army was commanded by the Earl of Surrey [created Duke of Norfolk the February following]; the Scottish by their rash and gallant monarch James the Fourth, who perished in the field amid heaps of his slaughtered nobles and gentlemen.
Page 182. v. 2. tratlynge] i. e. prattling, idle talk.
v. 5. Lo, these fonde sottes, &c.]—fonde, i. e. foolish. This passage resembles a rhyme made in reproach of the Scots in the reign of Edward the First:
“These scaterand Scottes
Holde we for sottes,” &c.
Fabyan’s Chron. vol. ii. fol. 140. ed. 1559.
Page 182. v. 11. Branxton more] i. e. Brankston Moor.
v. 12. stowre] Means generally—hardy, stout; here perhaps it is equivalent to—obstinate: but in Palsgrave we find “Stowre of conversation estourdy.” Lesclar. de la Lang. Fr., 1530. fol. xcvi. (Table of Adiect.).
v. 22. closed in led] The body of James, disfigured with wounds, was found the day after the battle; it was carried to Berwick, and ultimately interred in the priory of Shene: see Weaver’s Anc. Fun. Mon., p. 394. ed. 1631. After the dissolution of that house, according to Stow’s account, the body, enclosed in lead, was thrown into one of the lumber-rooms; and the head, which some workmen hewed off “for their foolish pleasure,” was brought to London and buried in St. Michael’s Church, Wood Street: Survey, B. iii. 81. ed. 1720.