Haunted Battlefields: The Ghosts of Flodden

Nor did the golden youth appear cowed in the face of monarchy. He marched right before King James and gripped the bar in front of him. Leaning on his arms, glaring just inches away from the monarch's eyes, he delivered his message.

The Virgin Mary had sent him to intercede.  If James persisted in this fool's errand of war, then the Scots would die en masse.  The Mother of God bade him stay within Scottish borders and disband his forces.

Moreover, James was warned never to take the counsel of women.

This latter was seen as a reference to the fact that it was the Queen of France who'd appealed to James personally. She had sent him a ring from her own finger, as a token of her regard, if he'd just invade England for her.

It was apparently not meant to allude to the fact that Mother Mary was issuing commands via Her angels.

Though shaken to the core, after the figure had strode out of the church, James was still committed to his war. He told a good number of people what had happened in Linlithgow, but did not retract his orders.

The Scots marched to Flodden Hill.

Miles away, in Edinburgh, before the battle was even fought, the citizens stood shocked and terrified. There was no source for that ghostly voice.

A city full of witnesses peered around the area by the Mercat. But the monotone seemed to come from Heaven itself.

The Mercat was no hidden back alley. This central location was where the merchants raised their stalls, and items of great import were communicated to the people. The surrounding buildings contained the city seats of commerce, justice and religion. Criminals were hanged by the back wall.

On the evening of September 8th 1513, a ghostly voice recited names, one after the other. It went on for hours and thousands of people heard it.

Many recognized the names being spoken. They belonged to loved ones or local noblemen, who had marched away days before to invade England. They had answered the call to arms of their king, James IV, who was doing this to aid the French.

The English would be forced to fight a war on two fronts, if both Scotland and France adhered to the Auld Alliance.  While Henry VIII led his army into France, it was left to his wife Queen Catherine of Aragon - riding alongside the Earl of Surrey - to defend their realm from the Scots.

Those names, sounding across the Mercat as an unemotional litany, could be matched to live men stationed upon Flodden Hill.  The Fateful clash wouldn't come until morning.

When it did, the significance of the Mercat names selected would be tragically and horrifically apparent. The spectral voice only read out those who would die. 

Over 17,000 names were heard in Edinburgh on the eve of Flodden. To this day, no-one knows from whence it came.

On the night of September 9th 1513, as around 17,000 men lay dead or dying at Flodden, Provost Gavin Douglas was alone in his cathedral.

He was possibly trying to work out the meaning of the ghostly voice the night before, in the Mercat just outside his door. If so, then he was also about to become the first person in Edinburgh to get the answer.

Without the great cathedral doors opening, his aisles and pews began filling up. As the clergyman looked on, with his heart in his mouth, he saw thousands of phantoms gazing mournfully back. They kept on coming, until they filled every foot of available space.

Every man there was a Catholic. They had died without the last rites. Provost Douglas understood this, though it was not spoken in the eerie silence.

He put on his robes and prepared his altar. One by one the apparitions lined up before him. As each dead Scot received his last rites, he disappeared, then came the next.

So no, Provost Douglas didn't need to hear of any 'great rumor'. He'd spent the whole night discerning very well the tragedy that had befallen Scotland; and he'd not shrunk from doing his best.

Turn left onto the B6352, from Northumbria's A697, and you are driving along a stretch of road known as the most haunted in Britain.

It is here where countless drivers have slammed into an emergency stop, to avoid men in 16th century costumes wandering across the road.

It is here where too many travelers have heard the sounds of pikes on bills, and the screams of dying men.

It's little wonder then that this is an area which attracts a lot of ghost-hunters. Especially around the anniversary of the battle.  Reputedly, the entire clash is replayed, in the vale between Flodden and Branxton Hills, every September 9th.  Though the sightings continue all year round.

This ghostly battle re-enactment is generally viewed as a 'recording' rather than sentient apparitions fighting. Ghost-hunters refer to it in terms of the landscape itself replaying events, as if the very rocks beneath recoil from what happened there.

Others note that most of the dead are buried in mass graves on the site. It may be that they really are seeking never to be forgotten, until their bodies are removed to consecrated ground.

If so, then those phantom battles should abruptly stop, if archaeologists are successful.  As part of the 500th anniversary events and memorials, there is a bid to find the final resting place of Flodden's fallen.

Though, of course, the opposite could be true. Flodden field's ghostly residents might be seen with ever more frequency, as their mortal remains are disturbed.

What do you think?