Battle of Neville's Cross

The Battle of Neville's Cross took place to the west of Durham, England, on 17 October 1346. The culmination of a Scottish invasion of northern England, the battle ended with the rout of the Scots and the capture of their king, David II of Scotland.

Background
In 1346, England was embroiled in the Hundred Years' War with France. In order to divert his enemy, Philip VI of France appealed to David II of Scotland to attack the English from the north in order to create a second front for the English. Despite Philip VI's especially desperate pleas in June 1346 (when the English were amassing troops in southern England), David II of Scotland waited until October, when he felt few English troops would be left to defend lucrative Northern English cities. Waiting until he believed most English troops were fighting France and with winter approaching David II of Scotland invaded England.

On 7 October, the Scots invaded England with approximately 12,000 men. They were expecting to find northern England relatively undefended because Edward III was by then conducting a major campaign in France. (Philip VI went so far as to characterize northern England as a "defenceless void".) Unfortunately, David II's strategic and tactical abilities were not up to the task of making good use of the Scots' element of surprise. Perhaps, though, they did not feel the need for haste. After taking Liddesdale (and bypassing Carlisle after being paid protection money), the Scots moved on toward their ultimate goal of Durham and Yorkshire after more than a week's march. Along the way, they sacked the priory of Hexham and burned the territory around their line of march. They arrived at Durham on 16 October and camped at Beaurepaire, where the Scots were offered £1,000 (£0 as of 2024) in protection money to be paid on 18 October.

Without the Scots' knowledge, however, the English had already arrayed troops for just such an invasion. Once the Scots invaded, an army was quickly mobilized in Richmond under the supervision of William Zouche, the Archbishop of York. It was not, however, a large army and what men were available were split into two separate groups: 3,000–4,000 men from Cumberland, Northumberland and Lancashire, with another 3,000 Yorkshiremen en route. Given the demands of the Siege of Calais, no further men could be summoned for the defence of Northern England. Worse still, on 14 October (while the Scots were sacking Hexham), the Archbishop decided not to wait for the Yorkshiremen and made haste toward Barnard Castle.

The battle
The Scots only discovered the presence of the English army on the morning of 17 October. Troops under command of William Douglas stumbled upon them in the morning mist during a raid south of Durham. The two rearward divisions of the English army drove the Scots off with heavy Scottish casualties.

Upon hearing Douglas's report, David II led the Scottish army to high ground at Neville's Cross (site of an old Anglo-Saxon stone cross), where he prepared his army for battle. Both the Scots and English arranged themselves in three battalions. Though the Scots were in what is considered a rather poor position (with various obstacles between them and the English position), they remembered well their defeats in the Battle of Dupplin Moor and the Battle of Halidon Hill and thus took a defensive stance, waiting for the English to attack. The English also took a defensive stance, knowing they had the superior position and likely knowing that time was on their side. The resulting stalemate lasted until the afternoon, when the English sent longbowmen forward to harass the Scottish lines. The archers succeeded in forcing the Scots to attack, but their initial hesitation in going on the offensive appears in hindsight to have been the correct decision. The Scots' poor position resulted in their formations falling apart as they advanced, allowing the English to deal easily with the Scottish attack. When it became clear that the battle was going in favour of the English, Robert Stewart, the future King of the Scots, and the Earl of March fled the battle, abandoning David II's battalion to face the enemy alone. Late in the afternoon, the king's own battalion attempted to retreat, but was unsuccessful and David II was captured after he fled the field, while the rest of the Scottish army was pursued for more than twenty miles.

Several Scottish nobles were killed, including:

Scottish chroniclers Andrew of Wyntoun and Walter Bower both wrote that 1,000 Scots were killed in the battle, while the Chronicle of Lanercost said that "few English were killed".
 * John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray
 * Niall Bruce of Carrick, an illegitimate son of Robert the Bruce.
 * Lord David de la Hay, The Constable
 * Maurice de Moravia, Earl of Strathearn
 * Lord Robert Keith, The Great Marischal of Scotland
 * Lord Thomas Charteris, The Chancellor
 * Lord Robert de Peebles, The Chamberlain
 * Scott, Sir Michael, of Rankilburn and Murthockston, The Scotts of Buccleuch, Vol 1. Chap 2 p 15 Sir William Fraser.Edinburgh 1878

The aftermath
David II initially managed to escape. However, legend has it that, while he was hiding under a bridge over the nearby River Browney, David’s reflection was spotted in the water by a detachment of English soldiers that was out searching for him. David was then captured by John de Coupland the leader of the detachment. Later, King Edward III ordered Coupland to hand him over. Edward then rewarded Coupland with a knighthood and a handsome annuity. King David was imprisoned at Odiham Castle (King John's Castle) in Hampshire from 1346 to 1357. After eleven years, he was released in return for a ransom of 100,000 marks (approximately £15 million in 2006).

The Battle of Neville’s Cross derives its name from a stone cross that Lord Neville paid to have erected on the battlefield to commemorate this remarkable victory. The fate of the unfortunate David II of Scotland is immortalised in Shakespeare’s play Henry V. In Act 1 Scene 3, Henry says to the Archbishop of Canterbury:

For you shall read that my great-grandfather / Never went with his forces into France / But that the Scot on his unfurnish’d kingdom/ Came pouring, like the tide into a breach, / With ample and brim fullness of his force; / Galling the gleaned land with hot essays, / Girding with grievous siege castles and towns; / That England, being empty of defence, / Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood.

But the Archbishop replies:

She hath been then more fear’d than harm’d my liege; / For hear her but exampled by herself: / When all her chivalry hath been in France, / And she a mourning widow of her nobles, / She hath herself not only well defended, / But taken, and impounded as a stray, / The king of Scots; whom she did send to France, / To fill King Edward’s fame with prisoner kings…

Sources and further reading

 * Sadler, John Border Fury: England and Scotland at War 1296–1568, Harlow 2006, ISBN 1-4508-4022-6
 * Sumption, Jonathan, The Hundred Years' War, Vol. 1: Trial by Battle, London 1990, ISBN 0-8122-1655-5
 * Cornwell, Bernard, Vagabond, HarperCollins 2003; ISBN 0-06-053268-8. (Contains a dramatization of the battle.)
 * Battle of Neville's Cross by historian R.M. Gunn
 * Battle of Neville's Cross from the Battlefields Trust website
 * English Heritage: Battle of Neville's Cross
 * UK Battlefields Resource Centre: Battle of Neville's Cross 17 October 1346
 * The Battle of Neville's Cross; by J. W. Dickenson (contains new thinking on some of the much repeated tales)
 * The Battle of Neville's Cross; by J. W. Dickenson (contains new thinking on some of the much repeated tales)