At Otterburn began this spurn upon a Monenday;
There was the doughty Douglas slain, the Percy never went away."
The Battle of Otterburn was fought on the 19th of August 1388. The
Scots were to muster at Jedburgh for a raid into England. The Earl of
Northumberland and his sons, learning the strength of the Scottish
gathering, resolved not to oppose it, but to make a counter raid into
Scotland. The Scots heard of this and divided their force. The main
body, under Archibald Douglas and others, rode for Carlisle. A
detachment of three or four hundred men-at-arms and two thousand
combatants, partly archers, rode for Newcastle and Durham, with James
Earl of Douglas for one of their leaders. These were already
pillaging and burning in Durham when the Earl of Northumberland first
heard of them, and sent against them his sons Henry and Ralph Percy.
In a hand-to-hand fight between Douglas and Henry Percy, Douglas took
Percy's pennon. At Otterburn the Scots overcame the English but
Douglas fell, struck by three spears at once, and Henry was captured
in fight by Lord Montgomery. There was a Scots ballad on the Battle
of Otterburn quoted in 1549 in a book--"The Complaynt of Scotland"--
that also referred to the Hunttis of Chevet.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25