{"id":2033,"date":"2026-10-15T15:10:58","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T15:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/15\/the-little-known-14th-century-battle-that-has-shaped-english-scottish-and-french-relations\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T15:10:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T15:10:58","slug":"the-little-known-14th-century-battle-that-has-shaped-english-scottish-and-french-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/15\/the-little-known-14th-century-battle-that-has-shaped-english-scottish-and-french-relations\/","title":{"rendered":"The little-known 14th century battle that has shaped English, Scottish and French relations"},"content":{"rendered":"
A largely fictional 15th century depiction of the Battle of Neville\u2019s Cross from the chronicles of Froissart, <\/span> Bibliotheque Nationale de France<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On October 17, 1346, the battle of Neville\u2019s Cross was fought outside Durham in the north-east of England. It was a decisive moment in Anglo-Scottish history that led to the capture of King David II of Scotland. Yet few have heard of it.<\/p>\n

Other battles<\/a> are far better known. Those of Stirling Bridge (1297), Falkirk (1298) and Bannockburn (1314) are more famous because of the exploits of William Wallace<\/a> and Robert the Bruce<\/a>. Similarly well-known are the successes of Edward III (the Black Prince) and Henry V<\/a> at Cr\u00e9cy (1346), Poitiers (1356) and Agincourt (1415), respectively.<\/p>\n

Yet, less than two months after Cr\u00e9cy, a decisive victory was won in northern England. The battle of Neville\u2019s Cross remains one of the least publicly known but decisive battles in English history.<\/p>\n

As Edward III gathered a force of 15,000 men to invade France in 1346, King Philip IV of France requested Scottish aid. He wrote to King David<\/a> in June and again in July: \u201cI implore you to remember our friendship and our treaties and to strike as hard at England as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Edward III and most of his nobles in France, Philip reassured David that England was a \u201cdefenceless void\u201d<\/a>. The opportunity was too good to miss.<\/p>\n

David duly invaded England with a force of around 12,000 men on October 7. They stormed the Peel of Liddell, took a ransom from Carlisle and sacked Hexham Abbey, before resting outside Durham at Bearpark on October 16.<\/p>\n

The English were not, however, caught unawares. Contrary to Philip\u2019s assurances, Edward had not left his northern border undefended. A force of 6,000 men was raised by the northern lords, Henry Percy<\/a>, Ralph Neville<\/a> and the Archbishop of York<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n \"The<\/a>
\n The ruins of Bearpark manor, where the Scottish army camped before the battle.<\/span>
\n Author provided<\/span>, CC BY<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seeking to catch the Scots unawares, they marched towards Bearpark before dawn on October 17. In the morning mists, the English force stumbled upon a Scottish raiding party led by William Douglas<\/a>. Douglas hastily fled to inform King David that the English had successfully fielded an army against him.<\/p>\n

The Anonimalle Chronicle<\/a>, an anonymous 14th-century account written at St Mary\u2019s Abbey, reported that David arose from his bed irritated and angrily said: \u201cO man, that cannot be, because in England there are no men left but monks and canons, brothers and priests, swineherds and shepherds, cobblers and skinners; but all the knights are with their king overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The battle of Neville\u2019s Cross<\/h2>\n

Two contemporary letters by the prior of Durham<\/a> and Thomas Sampson<\/a> described how the English army arrived at the battlefield<\/a> outside Durham at 9am. The two armies proceeded to stare at each other across the moor for the next five hours. Then the English longbowmen opened fire on the Scots at 2pm, and the battle began in earnest. By 5pm, the Scots were routed and fled the field.<\/p>\n

Although the ebb and flow of the battle is difficult to reconstruct, historians have suggested<\/a> that \u201cvictory was achieved, not so much by archery, as by the hard work of fighting hand-to-hand in a fierce melee\u201d.<\/p>\n

The chronicle of Meaux Abbey<\/a>, written at the turn of the 15th century, recorded that \u201cbecause of their exhaustion and the length of the fight, they rested from the fight for a time, leaning on their spears and weapons\u201d. The Anonimalle Chronicle<\/a> similarly noted that the armies \u201crested by agreement and then fought again\u201d on several occasions.<\/p>\n

\n \"Medieval
\n Longbowmen at practice, from the Luttrell Psalter.<\/span>
\n Wiki Commons<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Local legend suggests that King David attempted to flee, hiding underneath Aldin Grange bridge. It is said he was captured because the English saw his reflection in the water of the River Browney. However, most contemporary chronicles record the king fighting courageously.<\/p>\n

King David was wounded by two arrows. Despite this, the Scotichronicon<\/a>, a 15th-century Scottish chronicle, reported that King David managed to knock out two of his captor\u2019s teeth before being overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

King David\u2019s captor was a relatively humble Northumberland squire \u2013 John de Coupland. He was promoted to the rank of knight banneret, the highest position below the titled aristocracy. He also received a very large annuity of \u00a3500 per year (equivalent to just over \u00a3290,000 in 2017<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Decisive and devastating result<\/h2>\n

It was a decisive and devastating result. The Scottish force lost up to 2,000 men, while the prior of Durham<\/a> wrote that \u201cfew of us in the said battle were killed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Alongside King David, four Scottish earls and over a dozen major barons were captured<\/a>. The Earl of Menteith, who had previously paid homage and sworn loyalty to Edward III, was hung, drawn and quartered for treason. The list of the dead included the earls of Moray and Strathearn, the marshal, constable, chancellor and chamberlain of Scotland, as well as many barons and knights.<\/p>\n

In the following year, the English were able to occupy virtually of all of Scotland south of the Forth and Clyde rivers. It would take decades for the Scots to recover all they had lost. King David<\/a> himself spent 11 years as an English prisoner before agreeing to pay a large ransom of 100,000 marks for his freedom (equivalent to just over \u00a339 million in 2017<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n \"A
\n One of the signs indicating the historical significance of Neville\u2019s Cross on the A167.<\/span>
\n Author provided<\/span>, CC BY<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The battle of Neville\u2019s Cross was most significant because it stopped a series of potential might-have-beens. A Scottish victory would have put pressure on Edward III to lift his siege of Calais and return to England. Instead, the resounding English victory secured Edward\u2019s northern border for the rest of his long reign. This enabled him to raise 30,000 men for the Calais siege; the largest English force assembled during the hundred years war (1337-1453).<\/p>\n

Why, then, is the battle not more famous? Unlike Agincourt, it was not immortalised by Shakespeare. Unlike Bannockburn, national identities have not coalesced around it. The battle has not featured in a major cinematic portrayal. It has faded from popular memory in the long and bloody history of Anglo-Scottish warfare.<\/p>\n

Although relatively few people today have heard of Neville\u2019s Cross, the events of a few short hours there one October afternoon were of international significance. They came to shape the relations of England, Scotland and France for years to come.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Alex Brown is currently the Principal Investigator of a Leverhulme Trust funded project on ‘Modelling the Black Death’.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A largely fictional 15th century depiction of the Battle of Neville\u2019s Cross from the chronicles of Froissart, Bibliotheque Nationale de France On October 17, 1346, the battle of Neville\u2019s Cross was fought outside Durham in the north-east of England. It was a decisive moment in Anglo-Scottish history that led to the capture of King David […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}