The earl of Surrey led a force north and battle was agreed for the 9th of September. Despite having a superior position, better weapons and more men James was defeated and killed along with his illegitimate son, the Archbishop of St.Andrews, the Bishop of the Isles and eight of Scotland’s twenty-two earls. Many excuses have been suggested such as the difficulty in moving the Scottish artillery and the impatience of James to lead his men in to battle. However the battle at Flodden was significant due to the large number of troops and nobles who followed James and because the whole of Europe was interested in the outcome. James had made Scotland an important force in European politics but all his dreams ended in a crushing defeat at the hands of the ‘auld enemy’ while honouring the ‘auld alliance’.
James IV was undoubtedly a hugely popular man. He was able to unite Scotland and really build a sense of national pride and a belief amongst the population that Scotland was a strong nation with a role to play in international affairs. James is often described as a dreamer or romantic but the plans he made must have seemed possible to him and it was perhaps this belief in himself and Scotland which made him so well liked. James was not willing to accept the role cast for Scotland as that of a weak, poor country on the periphery of Europe. He was also able to tax the populace, particularly nobles, without them becoming discontent as they had when his father had imposed taxes. This is possibly due to his personality and the efforts he made to be seen by the people in all areas of Scotland. The people were proud of the king and their confidence must have increased as James assembled a formidable military force. During his reign he introduced beneficial educational and legal reforms. He also encouraged the arts, medicine and technological innovations. Until 1509 his foreign relations were superb and he did generally encourage peace over war, however the events that led up to Flodden saw him exploited by the French king, who probably only made promises about James’ crusade in the first place, in order to secure military support. Ultimately this manipulation saw him lose everything he had built. James IV was a highly talented king but his impatience and obsession with his proposed crusade combined with sheer bad luck to bring about his downfall. Despite this failure it was James who secured a claim to the English throne, although it is debatable how much Scotland gained from the eventual creation of Britain under his ancestor James VI.
