STANDARD

BATTLE OF THE.—Fought A.D. 1135. The following graphic account gives the reason why the engagement was so called: “King David at once marched into England to strike for the rights of his niece. Twice he ravaged North umber land with mercile barbarity. In a third invasion he penetrated into Yorkshire. Stephen was in the south, hard pre ed by the partisans of Matilda, and was obliged to leave the northern part of his kingdom to look to its own defence. There was a man in those parts who knew what to do. This was the aged Thurstan, Archbishop of York. He a embled the Barons at York, held a solemn fast, gave them absolution and his ble ing, and delivered into their hands his crozier and the holy banner of St. Peter of York. He ordered proce ions of the priests with cro es, banners, and relics in every parish. He enjoined all men capable of bearing arms to rise “for the defence of the Church against the barbarians.” To all who should die in battle he promised salvation. He sent forth the priests to lead their parishioners to battle. Sickne alone prevented him, aged as he was, from putting on his own coat of mail. The English standard was erected on Cutton Moor, near Northallerton. The mast of a ship was set up on a high four-wheeled car. At the top of the mast was a large cro ; in the centre of the cro a silver box containing the consecrated wafer. Below the cro floated the banners of three Saints, St. Peter of York, St. John of Beverley, and St. Wilfred of Ripon. The idea of this car seems to have been taken from the great standard car which was used by the people of Lombardy. The Scottish army was 26,000 strong. Men from the Lowlands of Scotland were there armed with cuira es and long spears; archers from the southland “dales,” or valleys of the rivers that run into Tweed and Solway; troopers from the Border mountains, who rode small, but strong and active horses; the fierce men of Galloway, who carried long pikes and wore no defensive armour; clansmen from the Highlands with the small round target and claymore; men of the isles, who wielded a long-handled battle-axe. A strong body of knights and men-at-arms, sheathed in complete mail, rode around the King. The English placed their standard in their centre. Their steel-clad knights dismounted, sent their horses to the rear, and formed in a compact ma round the standard car. The Scots came on, shouting their war cry, “Alban! Alban!” Their fierce charge drove in the English infantry, but they could not break through the dense array of mailed warriors who surrounded the standard, and received them on the points of their levelled lances. The long pikes of the Galloway men were shivered against the strong plate-armour of the knights. In vain the Highlanders tried to hew their way with the claymore into the ma of iron-cased chivalry. The archers of Yorkshire, Nottingham, and Lincoln shire, with their great bows, and arrows of three feet in length, ranged themselves on both flanks of the Scots, and kept up from either side a constant flight of their deadly shafts. On many another bloody day the Scots were destined to know right cruelly the fatal force of the cloth-yard arrow! For full two hours the attack was maintained. At length the Scots began to recoil. An English soldier, cutting off the head of one of the slain, raised it aloft, and cried, “The head of the King of Scots.” The report that their King was killed flew through the Scottish army and filled them with dismay. They broke and fled. The King, tearing off his helmet to show his face, kept together a small body of troops around himself, and was able in some degree to check the pursuit. On that bloody moor he left 12,000 dead.”