Branxton - Flodden Field

On the English side of the border in a field near the village of Branxton (5mi/8km to the southeast), a granite memorial plaque commemorates "The Brave of Both Nations", the thousands of soldiers who gave up their lives in 1513 for England or Scotland. In 1503, hoping to cement a lasting a peace with England, James IV had married Margaret Tudor, the daughter of Henry VII, and had brought her to Edinburgh. Despite a promising start, James IV's reign ended tragically. Under the terms of the "Auld Alliance", in the event of war he was obliged to come to the aid of France. When Henry VII attacked France, the Scots reacted by invading England. But on September 9, 1513, the Scottish army and the nobility were wiped out on Flodden Field. An old Scottish ballad "The Flowers of the Forest" which laments the terrible losses Scotland suffered was played by a piper of the Scots Guard when the coffins of the dead from the 1982 Falklands conflict returned to Great Britain.