Scottish Text Society publications > Old series > Historie and cronicles of Scotland > Volume 2, 1899

NOTES: JAMES IV. 381
Ford Castle. Lady Ford asked leave to visit her friends and passed
to Surrey’s camp.
James surprised by Surrey’s advance.
The counsel of the Scotch Lords.
James determines to fight in spite of their counsel.
James forbids Borthwick to fire on the English crossing the Till.
Mr Hodgkin argues that the English could not be seen at Twizel
Bridge over the Till from the Scotch camp.
262. 19. Sum sayis the lady of Furde was ane bewtiefull woman and
that the king mellit witht Mr. Pitscottie evidently did not give implicit
belief to the story, but only half credits it, because of the character of
James in his relations with women (p. 263, 1. 5, “ I beleif,” &c.)
The question whether an intrigue between James and the Lady
Heron of Ford really affected the issue of Flodden has been keenly
debated. Of the earlier Scotch historians, Pitscottie states it as a
rumour, Buchanan as a fact, Leslie ignores it, Tytler follows Pit¬
scottie, Hill Burton is sceptical, and Hume Brown, like Burton,
qualifies the story by “ it is said ” (‘ History of Scotland,’ vol. i. p. 335).
The arguments of Mr T. Hodgkin, D.C.L., in ‘ Archasologia Eliana,’
1891, certainly deserve serious consideration. Mr Hodgkin thinks
the story may have originated from Lady Ford having made personal
suit to James for the delivery of her husband, then a prisoner in Scot¬
land, and for the abstaining from casting down his castle, after which
she went to the camp of Surrey, to whom she gave information as to
the Scotch army (Hall’s Chronicles, p. 558). The argument may be
pushed even further than he has done. Ford Castle was cast down,
and her husband was not released. To crave his release was not the
act of an adulteress. He also points out that the dates leave very little
time for an intrigue which could have delayed the campaign, and
that while James may have been at Ford Castle from 29th August till
5th September, a stay of twenty days at Ford is impossible, as he
entered England only seventeen days before Flodden. Lady Ford
cannot have gone to Surrey at York, as Pitscottie says, from Ford, for
Surrey left York on 26th August, and she must have gone to him in
any case some days before 5th September.
263. 5-29. / beleif the stinkand adullterie and fornicatioun had ane
greit pairt of thair ewill succes. . . . And hie againe as ane feminnat
prince subdewit and intyssit be the allurment and fallis desait of this
wickit woman. Pitscottie’s doubts here disappear, and he treats Lady
Ford and James’s intrigue as a fact. The opportunity of preaching a
moral sermon was too strong for him to resist.
CHAPTER XIX.
265. 30. Dacre was called “ Lord Dacre of the North,” so I is
probably right.