126 Battle of Sark. 



After this test the reasonableness, if not the accuracy, of the 

 Asloan MS. as now interpreted can scarcely be disputed, and it is 

 time to turn from chronology to the battle itself. It has been 

 described with such admirable clearness, fulness, and vigour by 

 our own M'Dowall that in going" over it again the chief purpose to 

 be served is to point out divergences in the authorities and to 

 emphasise aspects not dealt witli by the industrious and eloquent 

 historian of Dumfries. 



The Lincluden conference we can now see as a sign of the 

 times. War was expected, and the western border was being put 

 in a posture of defence in case of invasion. This was December, 

 1448 ; there was war in the spring ; in May, 1449, Percy burnt 

 Dunbar ; early in June Douglas retaliated by burning Alnwick ; 

 that same month the enemy came to the west march, and all the 

 beacons from Trailtrow hill to Cor.sincon failed to summon a power 

 in time to secure Dumfines from fire. In July Douglas retaliated 

 once more, singeing the whiskers of the Percy lion by burning 

 Warkworth. So the cruel game of tit for tat went on, and one is 

 almost forced to infer that this antagonism between Douglas and 

 Percy was a main reason of the difficulty in making truces and the 

 still greater difficulty of keeping them when made. In England, 

 as in Scotland, there was, as Hall said, much '• domesticall division 

 within the realme," and Percy under Henry VI. was almost as 

 absolute a potentate as Douglas under James II. Despite the truce 

 of 18th September, Percy was evidently bent upon revenge in the 

 West for the injuries he had suffered in the East. Accordingly in 

 October an inroad into the West March was planned. 



The expedition was led by Percy. The Asloan MS. names 

 only the younger Percy, grandson of tlie famous Hotspur. Boece, 

 however, names also the elder Percy, Earl of Northumberland, as 

 himself present in the battle. With the Percies were Sir John 

 Haryngton and Sir John Pennington, as well as — according to 

 Boece — an officer of great experience trained in the wars of 

 France, whom, on account of his long beard, the Scots termed 

 in derision Magnus with the Red Mane.* 



The English force is stated by the Asloan MS. at 6000 men, 

 Boece characteristically vouching the higher figure of 40,000. 



There wiis, however, in the 14th century a Cumberland family called 

 Redmane. Bain iii., 911, 1464, Rotuli Scotfe i., 658. 



