BATTLE OP FLODDEN 293 



James's chivalrous temperament ; so, casting to the winds all 

 other considerations, he at once crossed the Rubicon, that 

 is, on August 22nd, with his whole army, he passed over 

 the Tweed at Coldstream — to his fate; and the invasion was 

 an accomplished fact.^ The invader's first care, certainly a 

 piece of good generalship, was to capture sundry castles and 

 strongholds, such as Norham, Wark, Etal, and others, which 

 occupied him for ten days at least ; but about the 4th of 

 September the Scottish army, already very considerably reduced 

 in numbers, was safely encamped on Flodden Hill. The King 

 himself, then general-in-chief, had probably, for some few days 

 previously, been a guest at Ford Castle in the immediate 

 vicinity, where that "champion of the dames," as Scott calls 

 him, according to most writers and popular belief, was more 

 occupied in flirting with Lady Heron, in her husband's absence, 

 than in directing the movements of his army or preparing 

 to encounter the enemy. These stereotyped ciiai-ges against 

 James, of which but a brief and faint outline could here 

 be given, had been thoroughly and exhaustively investigated 

 by that able and competent historian, Dr Thomas Hodgkin, 

 whose finding was distinctly "not proven." 



So far the march of events had been rapid and decisive ; 

 but it was time to enquire what was taking place in England 

 during its progress. The whole campaign, it might be pointed 

 out, from the passage of the Tweed till the day of battle, 

 occupied only eighteen days. Wonderful to relate, the news 

 of the invasion spread so quickly that by September the 6th 

 an English army of 26,000 men fully equipped under command 

 of the Earl of Surrey was encamped at Bolton, six miles 

 West of Alnwick, burning with enthusiasm to repel the invader. 

 This army was mainly composed of men of Northumberland, 

 Durham, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire ; but it included 

 a detachment of about 2,000, partly seamen of the fleet, partly 

 seasoned soldiers from Henry's army in France, who were 



^ A singular incident is alleu;ed to have taken place immediately after 

 the invasion. An Act of the Scottish Parliament was passed on English 

 soil, which was the last of the reign of James IV. It provided for 

 the remission of the usual feudal taxes on succession, in the case of 

 the heirs of those who might be killed during the war, 



