Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 18, RHI-SCR

Scotland.
400
The Scots
take the
caftles of
JSIorham,
Etal, and
Wark.
SCO [
and that Heron’s wife and beautiful daughter had been
'for fume time foliciting James for his deliverance. _ -Be
that as it may, it is too probable that James was imitten
with the charms of the daughter 5 and that her mo¬
ther, who was a mod artful woman, knew how to avail
herfelf of the conqueft. Pretending that Ihe l»d in¬
hered enough to procure the releafe of the lord Johndon
and Alexander Home, who were prifoners m England,
die was permitted by James to keep a condant corre-
fpondence with the earl of Surrey, to whom die is laid
to have betrayed all James’s fecrets and meafures. 1 he
rendezvous of James’s army was at the Burrow-moor,
to which James repaired 5 a-nd having given orders tor
the march of his artillery, he lodged at the abbey ot
Holyroodhoufe. While he was there, another at¬
tempt was made to divert him from his purpofe ot in¬
vading England : but James, deaf to all the felicita¬
tions and inventions of his queen, mudered his array ,
and on the 22d of Augud he paffed the I weed, en¬
camping that night near the banks of the iwifle 1. On
his arrival at Twiffelhaugh on the 14th, he called an
aflembly of his lords together, and made a declaration,
that the heirs of all fuch as thould die m the army, or
be killed by the enemy during his day in England,
{hould have their wards, relief, and marriages of the
kino-: who, upon that account, difpenfed with their
age? This is faid to have been the crifis of that prince’s
fate. Abandoned to his paflion for his Englilh mif-
trefs, Hie prevailed with him, at her mother s indiga-
tion, to trifle away his time for fome days •, during
which interval, the junaion of the Englith army was
formed. The earl of Surrey, the Englith general, was
then at Pomfret : but ordered the landholders of the
neighbouring counties to certify to him in writing what
number of men each could furnidi, charging, them to
be ready at an hour’s warning } and he laid his plan fo
as not to bring his army into the field till James had
advanced fo far into England as to render it very, dif¬
ficult for him to retire without a general battle. This
precaution affided the lady Ford (as (he is .called) in
perfuading James that there was no danger in the de¬
lay, becaufe the Englilh had not the face of an aimy in
the field.
In the mean time, the earl of Surrey ordered the go¬
vernors of Berwick and Norham, the two ftrongeft
places on the frontiers of England, to prepare for a
vigorous refidance in cafe they were attacked •, and di-
re&ed them to certify how long they could hold out,
In hopes, that if they made a refolute defence, James
would march on, and leave them in his rear. The go¬
vernor of Norham’s anfwer was, that his cadle was fo
well provided, as to leave him no doubt, in cafe of a
fiege, to be able to defend it till King Henry {hould
return from abroad, and relieve it m perfon. James,
however, befieged it on the 25th of Augud, and bet¬
tered it fo furioufly, that he took it by capitulation the
fixth dav after. James then proceeded to the cadle of
Etal belonging to the family of Manners (now.duke
of Rutland) ; which he took and demolidied likewife, as
he alfo did Wark, and arrived before the caille of Ford.
The Scotch army is generally allowed to have confided
of at lead 50,000 men when it paffed the 1 weed. At
this time it was encamped on the heights of Cheviot, in
the heart of a country naturally barren, and now defo¬
late through the precautions taken by the Englilh ge-
662 ]
SCO
neral. Being obliged to extend their quarters for the Scotland-
benefit of fubfidence, the mercenary part of them had '
acquired a confiderable plunder, with which, as ufual,
they retired to their own country, as many more did for
want of fubfidence. The earl of Surrey knew their
fituation, and ordered the rendezvous of his army, fird:
at Newcadle, and then near Norham, having certain in¬
telligence of the vad defertions daily happening in the
Scotch army, which had reduced it greatly. The w’et-
nefs of the feafon rendered his march, efpecially that of
the artillery, extremely difficult ; but being joined by
feveral perfons of didindlion, he marched on the 3d of
September to Alnwic, where he was reinforced by 5000
hardy veteran troops, fent from the Englidi army on
the continent, under the command of his fon the lord-
admiral of England; fo that, as the Englilh authors
admit, his army confided of 26,000 men, all complete¬
ly armed and provided for the field. James having, in
the manifedo which he difperfed on his entering Eng¬
land, given the death of Barton as one of the caufes of
his invafion, the lord-admiral had prevailed with Henry
to fend him upon this fervice ; and he informed James
by a letter, that he intended to judify the death of that
pirate in the front of the Englilh army. . 401
By this time the army of James was, by defertion James dlf-
and other caufes, reduced to lefs than half its numbers ; S^ftHeve-
but the chief misfortune attending it was his own cora-^b^ity.
du£t. His indolence and inactivity, joined to the fcan-
dalous example of his amours, at fuch a feafon, had dif-
guded feveral of his greated men and bed friends ; and
fome of them more than fufpefted a correfpondence be¬
tween the Englilh lady and the earl of Surrey. James
was deaf to all their remondrances; and the earl of
Angus declared, that he was refolved to return home,
as lie forefaw that the ruin of the army was inevitable
through the obdinacy of James. He accordingly with¬
drew to Scotland, but left behind him his two fons.
The lord Hume and the earl of Huntly were likewife
difeontented. The former had brought his. men into
the field ; but according to fome Scotch hidorians, with
a defign rather to betray than to ferve James ; but
Huntly, though he dilliked his mader’s conduCt, remain¬
ed firmly attached to his perfon.
The defection or backwardnefs of thofe great men
feemed to make no impreflion upon James. He had
chofen a drong camp in the neighbourhood of Ford,
on the fide of a mountain called Flodden-hill ; and he
was feparated from the Englilh army by the river Till. 4oa
This advantageous fituation put the earl of Surrey un-Encamps
der great difficulties ; for it rendered the Scotch army ^ aft ad-^
inacceffible, as it was fortified by artillery, and )vas now fltuation.
well fupplied with provifions by the change of its fitua¬
tion. The earl drew up a manifedo, with which he
charged Rouge Croix herald, who "was attended by a
trumpet. It contained fome propofals for an exchange
of prifoners, which feems to have been calculated to give
the lady Ford the more credit with James ; but con¬
cluded with reproaches for his perfidious invafion of
England, and a defiance to James to fight him in a ge¬
neral battle. The herald was farther charged with a
verbal cotnmiffion to acquaint James, that the earl of
Surrey had iffued orders that no quarter fimuld be given
to any of the Scotch army but the king himfelf.
A council of war was called on this occafion ; in
which the earl of Huntly and others made drong re¬
mondrances