Alison Weir Northumbria 2025: Day 7

DAY 7

After my porridge breakfast-kind of liked it-we left for Flodden Battlefield.

The Battle of Flodden, Flodden Field, or occasionally Branxton or Brainston Moor^[4] was fought on 9 September 1513 during the War of the League of Cambrai between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland and resulted in an English victory. The battle was fought near Branxton, in the county of Northumberland, in northern England, between an invading Scots army under King James IV and an English army commanded by the Earl of Surrey.^[5] In terms of troop numbers, it was the largest battle ever fought between the two kingdoms.^[6]

After besieging and capturing several English border castles, James encamped his invading army on a commanding hilltop position at Flodden, awaited the English force that had been sent against him and declined a challenge to fight in an open field. Surrey's army, therefore, carried out a circuitous march to position themselves in the rear of the Scottish camp. The Scots countered that by abandoning their camp and occupying the adjacent Branxton Hill and denying it to the English.

The battle began with an artillery duel followed by a downhill advance by Scottish infantry armed with pikes. Unknown to the Scots, an area of marshy land lay in their path, which had the effect of breaking up their formations. That gave the English troops the chance to bring about a close-quarter battle for which they were better equipped. James IV was killed in the fighting and became the last monarch from Great Britain to die in battle. That and the loss of a large proportion of the nobility led to a political crisis in Scotland.

British historians sometimes use the Battle of Flodden to mark the end of the Middle Ages in the British Isles; another candidate is the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.

As a reward for his victory, Thomas Howard was subsequently restored to the title of Duke of Norfolk, lost by his father's support for Richard III. The arms of the Dukes of Norfolk still carry an augmentation of honour awarded on account of their ancestor's victory at Flodden, a modified version of the Royal coat of arms of Scotland with the lower half of the lion removed and an arrow through the lion's mouth.

At Framlingham Castle the Duke kept two silver-gilt cups engraved with the arms of James IV, which he bequeathed to Cardinal Wolsey in 1524.^[83] The Duke's descendants presented the College of Arms with a sword, a dagger and a turquoise ring in 1681. The family tradition was either that these items belonged to James IV or were arms carried by Thomas Howard at Flodden.

Julian Humphrys did a fantastic job describing this battle as we stood where it took place, at the foot of the Cheviot Hills. Very moving.

We then departed for Lady Waterford Hall, described by Sarah Gristwood.

The construction of Ford Village School was commissioned in 1860 by Louis Anne, Marchioness of Waterford, the owner of the Ford Estate. To aid the children’s religious education, Louisa spent 21 years painting a series of huge watercolor murals of Bible stories to adorn the walls. Despite being a pre-Raphaelite artist of some repute, her achievements have been overlooked. Yet in Ford she created something unique -the only school in Britain to have its walls embellished with Pre-Raphaelite art. The paintings have remained intact.

Love the British bluebells

We then visited Etal Castle. The castle was built in 1341 and was involved in the border wars between England and Scotland. In 1513 it was briefly captured by James IV of Scotland during his invasion. The castle passed into the hands of the Crown in 1547 but fell into disrepair and abandoned. In the 21 century is it owned by the Joicey family but managed by English Heritage.

Lunch and Deb and I are tired

Lunch

Fun travel partner!

We then had a fun lunch of sandwiches at the Black Bull Inn, the only thatched pub in Northumberland, right across from Etal Castle.

The talk in on the bus that afternoon was about Lindisfarne, Aka holy island,Aka home of Vera!

The Island lies just off the extreme Northeast of England and is populated by only 160 people but gets inundated with visitors from around the world.

It is a tidal island reachable via a paved causeway when the North Sea permits. The island is rarely referred to by it Anglo Saxon name of Lindisfarne. Holy Island is probably derived from the observation of Durham monks:

Lindisfarne-truly a hold island, baptized on the blood of so many good men, after the murderous and bloodthirsty Viking attacked the monastery in 763 ad, It is famous for its medieval religious heritage and its 16^th century castle.

Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island was one of the most important centres of early Christianity in Anglo Saxon England. St. Aidan founded the monastery in 635 AD but St Cuthbert, priory of Lindisfarne, is the most celebrated of the priory’s holy men. Buried in the priory, his remains were transferred to a pilgrim shrine there. From the end of the 8^th century the isolated island with its rich monastery was easy prey for Vikings and in 875 the monks left, carrying Cuthbert’s remains, which were enshrined in Durham Cathedral in 1004, where they still rest. Only after that time did Durham monks establish a priory on Lindisfarne. The ruins of the priory church still stand. The small community lived on Holy Island until the suppression of the monastery in 1537.

The Castle was built in the 1550s using stones from the demolished priory. In 1902 Sir Edwin Lutyens began to create the country house you see today. The Walled Garden was re-designed by Gerturde Jekyll in 1911.

Talk at the Priory by Julian

St. Cuthbert's Island

Beautiful Celtic cross at the Priory

John and Jo-they help Alison on the tours and are the best!

I am glad we did not get stuck

Lindisfarne Castle

View going on the causeway to get to the island

This was truly a place I will never forget all of my life. It was very special. I walked around, looked, shopped and even had my own cup of Lindisfarne coffee with a scone. All this sightseeing at times made me tired.

Look what we saw on the drive out

You can hop up there if your car gets stuck in the water!

Great rest stop and scones

St. Cuthbert's Island

The Priory

Resting place of St. Cuthbert

The talk on the bus on our way to our hotel that night was about Margaret Tudor. Margaret Tudor (28 November 1489 – 18 October 1541) was Queen of Scotland from 1503 until 1513 by marriage to King James IV. She then served as regent of Scotland during her son's minority, and fought to extend her regency. Margaret was the eldest daughter and second child of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and the elder sister of King Henry VIII of England. By her line, the House of Stuart eventually acceded to the throne of England and Ireland, in addition to Scotland.

Margaret married James IV at the age of 13, in accordance with the Treaty of Perpetual Peace between England and Scotland. Together, they had six children, though only one of them reached adulthood. Margaret's marriage to James linked the royal houses of England and Scotland, which a century later resulted in the Union of the Crowns. Following the death of James IV at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, Margaret, as queen dowager, was appointed as regent for their son James V. A pro-French party took shape among the nobility, urging that the king's closest male relative, John Stewart, Duke of Albany, should replace Margaret as regent. In seeking allies, Margaret turned to the Douglases, and in 1514 she married Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, with whom she had one daughter, Margaret Douglas. Margaret's marriage to Angus alienated other powerful nobles and saw Albany take her place as regent. In 1524, Margaret, with the help of the Hamiltons, removed Albany from power in a coup d'état while he was in France, and was recognised by Parliament as regent, then later as chief counsellor to James V when he came of age.

In 1527, Pope Clement VII approved Margaret's divorce from Angus. The following year, she married Henry Stewart, whom the King created Lord Methven. Through her first and second marriages, Margaret was the grandmother of both Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.

Alison also spoke of Mary I. Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She made vigorous attempts to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, King Henry VIII. Her attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament but, during her five-year reign, more than 280 religious dissenters were burned at the stake in what became known as the Marian persecutions, leading later commentators to label her "Bloody Mary".

Mary was the only surviving child of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. She was declared illegitimate and barred from the line of succession following the annulment of her parents' marriage in 1533, but was restored via the Third Succession Act 1543. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded their father in 1547 at the age of nine. When Edward became terminally ill in 1553, he attempted to remove Mary from the line of succession because he supposed, correctly, that she would reverse the Protestant reforms that had taken place during his reign. Upon his death, leading politicians proclaimed Mary's and Edward's Protestant cousin, Lady Jane Grey, as queen instead. Mary speedily assembled a force in East Anglia and deposed Jane, who was eventually beheaded. Mary was—excluding the disputed reigns of Jane and the Empress Matilda—the first queen regnant of England. In July 1554, she married Philip of Spain, becoming queen consort of Habsburg Spain on his accession in 1556.