Such is the account collected by Carte, in which he seems not to be free from partiality: for prejudice must own that Froissart's circumstantial account carries a great appearance of truth, and he gives the victory to the Scots. He, however, does justice to the courage of both parties; and represents their mutual generosity in such a light, that the present age might edify by the example. "The Englyshmen on the one partye, and Scottes on the other party, are good men of warre, for whan they mete, there is a hard fighte without sparynge. There is no hoo[219] betwene them as long as speares, swordes, axes, or dagers wyll endure; but lay on eche upon other: and whan they be well beaten, and that the one party hath obtayned the victory, they than glorifye so in their dedes of armes, and are so joyfull, that suche as be taken, they shall be ransomed or they go out of the felde;[220] so that shortely eche of them is so contente with other, that at their departynge curtoysly they will saye, God thanke you. But in fyghtynge one with another there is no playe, nor sparynge." Froissart's Chronicle (as translated by Sir Johan Bourchier Lord Berners), cap. cxlii.
The following Ballad is (in this present edition) printed from an old MS. in the Cotton Library[221] (Cleopatra, c. iv.), and contains many stanzas more than were in the former copy, which was transcribed from a MS. in the Harleian Collection [No. 293, fol. 52.] In the Cotton MS. this poem has no title, but in the Harleian copy it is thus inscribed, A songe made in R. 2. his tyme of the battele of Otterburne, betweene Lord Henry Percye earle of Northomberlande and the earle Douglas of Scotlande, Anno 1388.
But this title is erroneous, and added by some ignorant transcriber of after-times: for, 1. The battle was not fought by the Earl of Northumberland, who was absent, but by his son, Sir Henry Percy, Knt., surnamed Hotspur (in those times they did not usually give the title of Lord to an Earl's eldest son). 2. Altho' the battle was fought in Richard II.'s time, the song is evidently of later date, as appears from the poet's quoting the chronicles in Pt. II., ver. 26; and speaking of Percy in the last stanza as dead. It was, however, written in all likelihood as early as the foregoing song, if not earlier. This, perhaps, may be inferred from the minute circumstances with which the story is related, many of which are recorded in no chronicle, and were probably preserved in the memory of old people. It will be observed that the authors of these two poems have some lines in common; but which of them was the original proprietor must depend upon their priority; and this the sagacity of the reader must determine.
[We have here a ballad founded upon a true historical event, in which the writer attempts to be as truthful as his national bias will allow him. In Chevy Chase, Percy is the aggressor, but in the "Battle of Otterburn," Douglas commences the encounter by his action. At the period under notice the king of England (Richard II.) was occupied in dissension with his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, and the Parliament, while Robert II., King of Scotland, was very old, and his eldest son lame and inactive, so that the Border chieftains were pretty much left to their own devices. The Earl of Fife, a younger son of King Robert, and certain of the great nobles, arranged among themselves that an inroad should be made into England as a reprisal for the injuries the Scotch had at various times sustained from the English, and the expedition was placed under the command of James, Earl of Douglas.
Besides the ballad we are now considering there are metrical accounts of the battle in John Hardyng's Chronicle, Joannes de Fordun's Scoti-Chronicon, and Wyntoun's Orygynal Cronykil of Scotland. In 1857, Robert White published an interesting History of the Battle of Otterburn, fought in 1388, with Memoirs of the Warriors who engaged in that memorable conflict. This book is written in an enthusiastic spirit by one who was born and bred on the Borders, and who kept alive in his soul the true old Border spirit. He listened on his mother's knee to the stanzas of the modern ballad of Chevy Chase, which she chanted to him, and he grew up with a feeling which he retained through life, that Percy and Douglas were far greater men than Napoleon and Wellington.
The exact date of the battle is an open question, for the authorities disagree as to this particular; thus Buchanan fixes it on July 21st, and other writers name, respectively, August 5th, 9th, 10th, 15th, and 19th. White thinks that the battle was fought on the evening of Wednesday and morning of Thursday, 19th and 20th of August, immediately before the full moon. In the year 1388 the new moon fell on the 6th of August, and Douglas is not likely to have chosen a period of dark evenings for his expedition. Another disputed point is the number of men in the Scottish army, under Douglas. Froissart gives the numbers at three or four hundred men-at-arms, and two thousand infantry; Wyntoun, at near seven thousand men; Buchanan, at three hundred horse and two thousand foot, besides servants and attendants; Godscroft, at four thousand horsemen; Ridpath, at three thousand men; and Scott, at three hundred men-at-arms, who, with their followers, made up from a thousand to fifteen hundred men, with two thousand chosen infantry. White makes the following statement as the result of his sifting of the conflicting accounts:—
| Men-at-arms | 400 |
| Attendants on ditto, footmen, lackeys, and grooms | 1,200 |
| Infantry mounted | 2,000 |
| Attendants on ditto, boys to take care of horses, sutlers, &c. | 3,000 |
| 6,600 |
It has been supposed that the first part of this ballad down to verse 112 was originally of Scottish manufacture, for two reasons: 1st, because Hume, of Godscroft, refers to "a Scots song," which begins as this does; and 2nd, because haymaking has been over at least a month in England at Lammas, when Scotch husbandmen are still busy "winning their hay." This last reason, however, cannot be considered a very conclusive one, as the seasons must be much alike on the two sides of the Border. The second part is written from a thoroughly English stand-point. The two Scottish versions, viz. the one given by Scott in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and the one in Herd's Collection, are very different from the English ballad.]