WHAT is the link between a famous English Premier League football club and a 14th century battle won by a Scottish army in what is now Northumberland?

The answer is Hotspur, the former being Tottenham Hotspur and the latter being Otterburn where the losing English commander was Henry Percy, son and heir of the 1st Earl of Northumberland. Henry Percy was the first man to bear the name Hotspur, a nickname given to him by the Scots on account of his impetuous behaviour in rushing into battle.

The Battle of Otterburn took place in this week in 1388. Well, it may have taken place on August 5, 1388, but also on August 10, or on August 19. The various chroniclers disagree on the exact date, but it was certainly in the month of August 633 years ago.

It was a battle that had been coming for years and it became memorable for several reasons, not least because it was remembered in the Ballad of Chevy Chase. It was largely fought at night and included the death of the Scottish commander, James Douglas, the 2nd Earl of Douglas and Mar, at the height of the action, and the capture of Henry Hotspur and his brother Ralph.

Earl Northumberland and Hotspur had raided Scotland in 1385 in retaliation for the Scottish and French invasion of northern England, and the Percy-led forces burned Haddington and tore down Melrose and Dryburgh Abbeys. In return Douglas and his French allies counter-raided Carlisle and Durham.

By 1388, England’s King Richard II was having terrible trouble with his barons as they jostled for power and the possibility of seizing his throne. He had earlier made Northumberland his Warden of the East March, effectively making the Percys his border guards, while Douglas was given the same task for Scotland.

It put the two families on a military collision course and it duly came when Douglas invaded Northumberland while the Earl of Fife raided Cumberland in the summer of 1388.

Douglas advanced to Newcastle-upon-Tyne and at its castle he confronted Henry Hotspur, commander of the city. In single combat, Douglas battered Hotspur to the ground and stole his pennon, or pennant.

The online Percy family history records the words of Douglas outside the castle: “Syre,” he said ” I shall bear this token of your prowess into Scotland, and shall set it high in my castle of Dalkeith that it may be seen from far off”. Hotspur shouted down in reply: “Ye may be sure ye shall not passe the bounds of the countrye tyll ye be met withal in such wyse that ye shall make none account thereof.”. To which Earl Douglas replied: “Well Syre come you this night to my lodgyngs and seek for your pennon. I shall set it before my lodgynge, and see if you will come and take it away.”

Douglas duly marched north and camped at Otterburn as night was falling. The Scotichronicon by Walter Bower reads: “Douglas and his leading men settled down comfortably and peacefully, and with no one to stop them, they built many shelters from trees and leaves. They also protected themselves by making skilful use of the marsh lands which are there. On the way in between these marshes, on the Newcastle side, they put their servants and foragers. All their cattle were put in the marshland. Then they prepared to assault the castle again the next day…

“The Earl of Douglas did not suspect any evil from his foes, so with the Earls of March and Moray, his two brothers, and many other knights and nobles, he and they were dressed, unarmed, in gowns and long robes. As they reclined at table a certain Scot came to them, sitting on a saddled horse, calling frantically to all to fly to arms, ‘because our enemies are speeding upon us’. At his voice all jumped up from their supper, and flew to put on their armour.”

Hotspur had sent part of his force in an encircling move and they smashed into the Scottish camp, but that also meant he had split his army, perhaps 6000 men in all, into two sections and it was Hotspur’s force which Douglas and his men ferociously attacked.

Walter Bower recorded: “The English were in such strength and fought so well at this first stage, that they drove the Scots back ... Earl James saw that his men were falling back, so, to recover the lost ground and show his warlike qualities, he took a two-handed axe and plunged into the thickest of the fight, clearing a way in front of him and breaking into the press. None was so well protected by helm or plate as not to fear the blows he dealt. He went so furiously forward, as though he was a Trojan Hector expecting to win the battle single-handed, that he ran into three lances which pierced him all at the same time, one in the shoulder, one in the chest just above the pit of the stomach, and one in the thigh. He could not avoid these thrusts or parry them and was borne to the ground, very badly wounded. Once down he did not get up again ... The English went on, paying little attention to him, merely supposing they had felled some man-at-arms.”

It being night, the loss of Douglas was not noted at first and quite quickly the battle turned for the Scots. The capture of Henry Percy and his brother Ralph, the former by Lord Montgomery and the latter by Sir John Maxwell, turned the battle into a rout and as many as 1500 English soldiers were killed and 21 knights captured – their ransoms would boost the Scottish economy. The Douglas force had lost perhaps 500 men, including the commander whose body was taken back to be interred at Melrose Abbey.

Ransomed, Hotspur went on to become the embodiment of heroism, before he was killed fighting against King Henry IV at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403.