[Flute music playing]
Hi,
my name's Kevin Hicks. Welcome to my YouTube channel The History Squad. Now today's video
is about the battle of Otterburn. English, Scots, it's actually a Scots’ victory. Now this is part
of the Hundred Years War series and if you've not been following it or if you've missed any,
we do have a playlist in the description so you can easily catch up. And I thought I'd add a bit
of a Scottish flavor, this is my six hole flute, I've had it for years and that tune is from the
day, so I understand. So, Battle of Otterburn let's have a look. Battle of Otterburn, 5th of
August 1388 a Scottish victory over the English. OMG I've done it, we're going to get defeated,
but before I really go into it there's a lot more to this than meets the eye. I've got a list of
famous people who've died leading up to this. So we have Edward Prince of Wales, the Black Prince,
June 8 1376 he dies of dysentery that if you remember correctly he picked up in Spain. Then
we have Edward III the king himself, June the 21st 1377. So the king of England is now replaced by
Richard II, he's 10 year old and he's ruled by John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock with their
Regency Council. And on top of that Bertrand du Guescelin, the famous French commoner who became
the Constable of France. He dies July the 13th 1380, followed by Charles V of France, September
the 16th 1380. So all the old players in 100 Years War, as we know up until now are actually dead.
So things are cooking. The French have once again turned around to their old ally, with the
old alliance between Scotland and France. Cause trouble for the English. Now King David II who's
on the throne of Scotland at this time hasn't been consulted. Now it's James Earl of Douglas,
he's one of the instigators. They're going to invade England, but the English have actually
found out that they're going to invade. The only thing the English don't know and this is uh Henry
Percy, Earl of Northumberland known as Hotspur, is he doesn't know which route they're going to
take. Are they going to come down the east side? Are they going to come down the west side? They
don't know, so English spies are being sent out and the Scots capture one, and they persuade him,
nicely, to tell them the English plan. And this is what the spy actually says,
‘as soon as the English know which way you're coming they're going to attack you as you come
down that road ‘. So the Scots do a brilliant thing, they go down both roads. They're going
to attack west and east, but the main army is actually over in the west towards Carlisle
and that's where they're going to cause absolute mayhem. Meanwhile, Earl Douglas,
he comes down through Northumberland, he causes mayhem, he causes quite some trouble but the
English plan is this, they're not going to attack the Scots while they're fresh and strong, they're
going to attack them on the way back when they're loaded with loot. Now let me make one thing clear.
It doesn't matter if the English army is going north or the Scottish army is coming south,
the people who suffered were the ordinary people. We're talking of all of the crimes of war that
you can imagine, so the border regions of England and Scotland to this day the memory of the blood
that ran there is still quite high you know. People still talk about it, in fact there is
a curse against some people still held true in um Cumbria yeah? This is a deep subject and the
scars do run deep on both sides of the border there. So let's have a look at what happens
for the battle of Otterburn. This battle of Otterburn it's, it's quite complicated. Now there
is a discrepancy about the size of each army. Accounts in contemporary records estimate that
the Scottish force to be anything up to 6,000 men and the English Force around 8,000 men but as I've
said there are other accounts as to the numbers of men involved, but let's see what happens because
as the Scottish army is coming back up towards the border, with the Earl of Douglas, Jamie Douglas,
they go past Newcastle where he challenges hot spur to personal combat. And I love this,
and in front of everybody they have a fight. Bang Henry Percy loses and Douglas gets Hotspur,
takes his lance and pennant and rides off, but as he rides off he says ‘if your want your lance and
pennant back, you can come and take it. It'll be outside my tent’. So this is a challenge and
what the Scots expect now is the English army to attack as a point of honor to recover the pennant
of Henry Hotspur, but the Scottish Army continues and they attack and destroy Pontland Castle,
then they decide to make camp. And this is vital, it's all in my model here. To the one side there
is a forested hill, to the other side there is the River Reed, and they make their camp.
Obviously this is in miniature. And in between the river and the camp there is a heavy marsh.
So what the Scots do, is they, what we call in the army they ‘leager up’. They put all of
their wagons around as a barricade, just like they used to in the cowboy films,
then they have the soldiers within the camp and the camp followers will protect the camp
and meanwhile the Scottish army goes off and attacks Otterburn Castle. On their return late
in the afternoon, early evening they're having their meal, they're getting themselves ready when
the English army attacks, and it's, it's a big mistake. The English army should not have attacked
because it's getting dark. Not only that Hotspur's army wasn't all there, it was
strung out. His bowmen appear to be way back, but he couldn't use his bowmen because it's too dark,
so as he attacks he decides he's going to skirt around the outside
of the camp because there are men with crossbows and all that kind of stuff,
and his soldiers on their horses, men at arms, gallop straight in to the marsh.
Now as this happens the Earl of Douglas has gone out the back of the camp, come around the hill
and hit at a full charge the English army, in the flank. This is going to be chaos, mayhem,
it's going to be a heavy old battle. But the English recover and the Scots find themselves at
a disadvantage, they're being pushed back and then the Earl of Douglas, Jamie Douglas, what a guy,
no helmet on his head, draws a battle axe and charges straight into the English.
Smashing his way through. His men follow him, the Scots rally. The English now completely shocked.
Hotspur himself, he's wounded, he's captured. The English now fall back, but what the Scots don't
know till the end of the battle is the Earl of Douglas, Jamie Douglas, has been killed.
But what a brave man. Because as the English now withdraw, something else has happened.
Sir Robert de Umfraville, an English knight, has actually come into the back of the camp
while all this is going on and sacked the place, and then with his troops has ridden off.
If he'd have come in at the back, he'd have beaten the Scots but perhaps he didn't know
what was going on, perhaps he didn’t have enough loot. So yes, the Scots have had a victory.
Hotspur is captured along with a good many other English Knights and men at Arms.
The English army has it on its toes, it's away. A Scottish victory, but what a cost.
Hotspur’s captured yes, but your commander is dead. What a brave guy, and then when you
go into camp there's nothing, left the English have been in the back door and pinched the lot.
So at the end of the day, this battle being a small battle but so sharp, so vicious. There
were 1800 English dead so they say and the body of the Earl of Douglas, God rest his soul was,
was conveyed to, to the church at Melrose Abbey and he was interred in his family tomb, which
is which is great. Now the ransoms of the English noblemen that were captured were somewhere in the
region of 200,000 Francs, but I've got something here that from the day that I would like to read.
Of all the battles that have been described in this history great and small, this was the
best fought and the most severe. For there was not a man, not a knight or a squire who did not
acquit himself gallantly, hand in hand with his enemy, without stay or faint-heartedness.
Wow. At the end of the day this small battle, sharp, but the men fought so well.
I hope you enjoyed our video there, Scottish victory, English defeat. Who knows, in the future
I'm going to have to cover some of the French victories in the Hundred Years War, that's going
to be hard for Kevin but I promise I'm going to do some. So if you did enjoy our video, like, share
and subscribe and don't forget to put on the all notification button so you know what's coming down
the line. Now a mention of some of our patreon members, Darrell and Erin Pratt and their two kids
Ethan and CJ and then two others Peter Keane and Jake Caan. Hey guys thanks a bunch. Bye for now.