The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

THE SCOTTISH EDITION.

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The following edition of the Battle of Otterbourne, being essentially different from that which is published in the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, Vol.  I. and being obviously of Scottish composition, claims a place in the present collection.  The particulars of that noted action are related by Froissard, with the highest encomium upon the valour of the combatants on each side.  James, Earl of Douglas, with his brother, the Earl of Murray, in 1387 invaded Northumberland, at the head of 3000 men; while the Earls of Fife and Strathern, sons to the king of Scotland, ravaged the western borders of England, with a still more numerous army.  Douglas penetrated as far as Newcastle, where the renowned Hotspur lay in garrison.  In a skirmish before the walls, Percy’s lance, with the pennon, or guidon, attached to it, was taken by Douglas, as most authors affirm, in a personal encounter betwixt the two heroes.  The earl shook the pennon aloft, and swore he would carry it as his spoil into Scotland, and plant it upon his castle of Dalkeith.  “That,” answered Percy, “shalt thou never!”—­Accordingly, having collected the forces of the marches, to a number equal, or (according to the Scottish historians) much superior, to the army of Douglas, Hotspur made a night attack upon the Scottish camp, at Otterbourne, about thirty-two miles from Newcastle.  An action took place, fought, by moon-light, with uncommon gallantry and desperation.  At length, Douglas, armed with an iron mace, which few but he could wield, rushed into the thickest of the English battalions, followed only by his chaplain, and two squires of his body.[98] Before his followers could come up, their brave leader was stretched on the ground, with three mortal wounds:  his squires lay dead by his side; the priest alone, armed with a lance, was protecting his master from farther injury.  “I die like my forefathers,” said the expiring hero, “in a field of battle, and not on a bed of sickness.  Conceal my death, defend my standard,[99] and avenge my fall!  It is an old prophecy, that a dead man shall gain a field,[100] and I hope it will be accomplished this night.”—­Godscroft.—­With these words he expired; and the fight was renewed with double obstinacy around his body.  When morning appeared, however, victory began to incline to the Scottish side.  Ralph Percy, brother to Hotspur, was made prisoner by the earl Marischal, and, shortly after, Harry Percy¹⁰¹ himself was taken by Lord Montgomery.  The number of captives, according to Wyntoun, nearly equalled that of the victors.  Upon this the English retired, and left the Scots masters of the dear-bought honours of the field.  But the bishop of Durham approaching, at the head of a body of fresh forces, not only checked the pursuit of the victors, but made prisoners some of the stragglers, who had urged the chase too far.  The battle was not, however, renewed, as the bishop of Durham did not venture to attempt the rescue of Percy.  The field was fought 15th August, 1388.—­Fordun, Froissard, Hollinshed, Godscroft.

[Footnote 98:  Their names were Robert Hart and Simon Glendinning.  The chaplain was Richard Lundie, afterwards archdean of Aberdeen.—­Godscroft.  Hart, according to Wintown, was a knight.  That historian says, no one knew how Douglas fell.]

[Footnote 99:  The banner of Douglas, upon this memorable occasion, was borne by his natural son, Archibald Douglas, ancestor of the family of Cavers, hereditary sheriffs of Teviotdale, amongst whose archives this glorious relique is still preserved.  The earl, at his onset, is said to have charged his son to defend it to the last drop of his blood.]

[Footnote 100:  This prophecy occurs in the ballad as an ominous dream.]

[Footnote 101:  Hotspur, for his ransom, built the castle of Penoon, in Ayrshire, belonging to the family of Montgomery, now earls of Eglintoun.]

The ground, on which this memorable engagement took place, is now the property of John Davidson, Esq. of Newcastle, and still retains the name of Battle Cross.  A cross, erroneously termed Percy’s Cross, has been erected upon the spot where the gallant Earl of Douglas is supposed to have fallen.  These particulars were communicated to the editor, in the most obliging manner, by the present proprietor of Otterbourne.

The ballad, published in the Reliques, is avowedly an English production; and the author, with a natural partiality, leans to the side of his countrymen; yet, that ballad, or some one similar, modified probably by national prejudice, must have been current in Scotland during the reign of James VI.:  for Godscroft, in treating of this battle, mentions its having been the subject of popular song, and proceeds thus:  But that, which is commonly sung of the Hunting of Chiviot, seemeth indeed poetical, and a mere fiction, perhaps to stir up virtue; yet a fiction whereof there is no mention, either in the Scottish or English Chronicle.  Neither are the songs, that are made of them, both one; for the Scots song made of Otterbourne, telleth the time, about Lammas; and also the occasion, to take preys out of England; also the dividing the armies betwixt the earls of Fife and Douglas, and their several journeys, almost as in the authentic history.  It beginneth thus;

  “It fell about the Lammas tide,
  “When yeomen win their hay,
  “The doughty Douglas ’gan to ride,
  “In England to take a prey.”—­

GODSCROFT, ed.  Edin. 1743.  Vol.  I. p. 195.

I cannot venture to assert, that the stanzas, here published, belong to the ballad alluded to by Godscroft; but they come much nearer to his description than the copy published in the first edition, which represented Douglas as falling by the poignard of a faithless page.  Yet we learn, from the same author, that the story of the assassination was not without foundation in tradition.—­“There are that say, that he (Douglas) was not slain by the enemy, but by one of his own men, a groom of his chamber, whom he had struck the day before with a truncheon, in ordering of the battle, because he saw him make somewhat slowly to.  And they name this man John Bickerton of Luffness, who left a part of his armour behind, unfastened, and when he was in the greatest conflict, this servant of his came behind his back, and slew him thereat.”—­Godscroft, ut supra.—­“But this narration,” adds the historian, “is not so probable.”[102] Indeed, it seems to have no foundation, but the common desire of assigning some remote and extraordinary cause for the death of a great man.  The following ballad is also inaccurate in many other particulars, and is much shorter, and more indistinct, than that printed in the Reliques, although many verses are almost the same.  Hotspur, for instance, is called Earl Percy, a title he never enjoyed; neither was Douglas buried on the field of battle, but in Melrose Abbey, where his tomb is still shown.

[Footnote 102:  Wintown assigns another cause for Douglas being carelessly armed.

  “The erle Jamys was sa besy,
  For til ordane his cumpany;
  And on his Fays for to pas,
  That reckles he of his armyng was;
  The Erle of Mwrrawys Bassenet,
  Thai sayd, at that tyme was feryhete.”

Book VIII.  Chap 7.

The circumstance of Douglas’ omitting to put on his helmet, occurs in the ballad.]

This song was first published from Mr. Herd’s Collection of Scottish Songs and Ballads, Edin. 1774:  2 vols. octavo; but two recited copies have fortunately been obtained from the recitation of old persons residing at the head of Ettrick Forest, by which the story is brought out, and completed, in a manner much more correspondent to the true history.

I cannot dismiss the subject of the Battle of Otterbourne, without stating (with all the deference due to the father of this species of literature) a doubt, which occurs to me, as to the account given of “Sir John of Agurstone,” one of the Scottish warriors, in the learned and excellent notes subjoined to the ballad, in the Reliques of Ancient Poetry.  This personage is there supposed to have been one of the Haggerstons of Haggerston, a Northumbrian family, who, according to the fate of war, were sometimes subjects of Scotland.  I cannot, however, think, that at this period, while the English were in possession both of Berwick and Roxburgh, with the intermediate fortresses of Wark, Cornwall, and Norham, the Scots possessed any part of Northumberland, much less a manor which lay within that strong chain of castles.  I should presume the person alluded to rather to have been one of the Rutherfords, barons of Edgerstane, or Adgerston, a warlike family, which has long flourished on the Scottish borders, and who were, at this very period, retainers of the house of Douglas.  The same notes contain an account of the other Scottish warriors of distinction, who were present at the battle.  These were, the earls of Monteith, Buchan, and Huntley; the barons of Maxwell and Johnston; Swinton of that ilk, an ancient family which, about that period, produced several distinguished warriors; Sir David (or rather, as the learned editor well remarks, Sir Walter) Scott of Buccleuch, Stewart of Garlies, and Murray of Cockpool.

Regibus et legibus Scotici constantes, Vos clypeis et gladiis pro patria pugnantes, Vestra est victoria, vestra est et gloria, In cantu et historia, perpes est memoria!