TODAY is the 477th anniversary of one of the best victories by a Scottish army against a much larger English force.

The Battle of Ancrum Moor on February 27 1545 is notable because it was one of the few times in those years of internal strife that Scotland’s nobility united in common cause against an English invasion, and promptly won a stunning and unexpected victory. The battlefield itself is one of the best preserved in the country. The battle also gave rise to a recurring myth, that of Maid Lilliard, a warrior woman who is said to have killed the English commander during the battle as revenge for the English killing her lover.

Let’s deal with the facts first: in a bid to break the Auld Alliance with France, England had invaded Scotland in 1542 and inflicted a severe defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss after which King James V took to his bed and died, some said of grief. In pursuit of his obsession about being overlord of all Britain, King Henry VIII of England wanted James’s daughter, the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, to be married to his son, the future King Edward VI. The Regent for Mary, James Hamilton, the Second Earl of Arran, agreed to the marriage in the Treaty of Greenwich, but the Scottish Parliament rejected it in December 1543. Insistent upon the marriage and incensed because Scotland had not embraced his Protestant faith, Henry promptly began the war which would later be called the Rough Wooing, sending the Earl of Hertford north with a huge army that landed at Granton on the Forth north of Edinburgh.

In May 1544 the English burned Edinburgh but not the castle, and they returned south razing towns and villages all the way to the Border.

A second campaign was launched by the English led by Sir Ralph Eure and Sir Brian Layton, the captain of Norham Castle who had a force of 1500 English Borderers with around 700 Scottish Borderers whose loyalty had been bought. In addition, they had 3000 German and Spanish mercenaries, giving them more than a two to one numerical advantage come the time of the battle of Ancrum Moor.

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Arran’s great rival at the time was the “Red Douglas” leader Archibald Douglas, the Sixth Earl of Angus, whom he had imprisoned in Blackness Castle. Released after the invasion, Angus and his relative George Douglas of Pittendreich, father of the future Regent the Earl of Morton, made their peace with Arran and rounded up their fighting men. They joined with the troops of others loyal to Queen Mary, such as George Leslie, the Fourth Earl of Rothes, and made their way south.

Eure and Layton burned Melrose and its Abbey which was the burial place of generations of the Red Douglases. They then generally ravaged the Douglas lands, with the worst incident being the burning of Brumehous Tower with all its inhabitants, including the venerable Lady of the house, trapped inside the conflagration.

Angus was determined to catch the invaders who had desecrated his family’s tombs and pillaged his lands, and with a united Scottish army behind him, for once, he led them to Ancrum Moor near Jedburgh.

Here Angus set a trap. The vast bulk of the Scottish army hid over the brow of a hill while leaving a troop of cavalry in sight. The English were fooled into thinking the small force was the main Scottish army and they charged uphill, led by Layton with his detachment followed by Eure.

Out of the dazzling sun, the Scots erupted over the hill and their longer pikes did incredible damage. The English were blinded by the smoke of their own artillery and arquebuses, an early form of musket, and when their “assured” Scottish Borderers ripped off their red badges and changed sides, the conflict became a rout.

At least 800 on the English side were killed and 1000 taken prisoner. Among the dead were Eure and Layton, and the Earl of Arran is reported to have wept when shown Eure’s body and according to Henry VIII’s state papers, he said: “God have mercy on him, for he was a fell cruel man and over cruel, which many a man and fatherless bairn might rue, and well away that ever such slaughter and bloodshedding should be amongst Christian men.”

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The battlefield is listed by Historic Environment Scotland who describe its context thus: “Ancrum Moor, with c.7000 troops involved, was a substantial action where the troops were in full battle array. It was a significant defeat for the English, involving the death of their two senior commanders in the Marches, but it did not change the balance of power in the region and had no lasting impact either militarily or politically.

“In the end the only significant outcome of Ancrum was to lead Henry VIII to escalate his military action against Scotland, which ultimately led, after Henry’s death, to Somerset’s invasion of 1547 with the battle at Pinkie and the assault on Edinburgh.

However, Ancrum does indicate that Henry was to be frustrated in his ambitions, because even the massive defeat at Pinkie had no lasting effect and Scotland remained an independent kingdom.”

The myth of the Maid Liddiard is very much a later invention, added to by Sir Walter Scott. But it made for a great tale when her “tomb” was erected nearby with the following inscription:

“Fair Maid Lilliard

lies under this stane

little was her stature

but muckle was her fame

upon the English loons

she laid monie thumps

and when her legs were cuttit off

she fought upon her stumps.”

It’s a rousing story, but no more

than that.