Flodden 1513: Re-examining British Warfare at the End of the Middle Ages

On 9 September 1513 a Scottish army led by King James IV was decisively defeated by an English army, led by Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey. Most recent scholarship on the battle has concentrated on new European-style tactics of the Scots, part of James’s ultimately futile effort to introduce a “Renaissance-style” of kingship. This article re-examines the battle from the English perspective, arguing the English army was more “modern” in terms of its weaponry, tactics, and military organization and, second, that in the person of Thomas Howard they benefitted from the leadership of Britain’s first “Renaissance general.”