The Battle of Piperdean was an engagement in the Scottish Borders, fought on 10 September 1435 between the

Kingdom of Scotland The Kingdom of Scotland (; , ) was a sovereign state in northwest Europe traditionally said to have been founded in 843. Its territories expanded and shrank, but it came to occupy the northern third of the island of Great Britain, sharing a l ...

and the

Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various History of Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Kingdom of Scotland, ...

. An English force led by

George de Dunbar, 11th Earl of March George de Dunbar, 11th Earl of Dunbar & March 13th Lord of Annandale and Lord of the Isle of Man, (c. 1370after 1457) was the last of his family to hold these titles. Early life He was aged about fifty when he succeeded his father, George Dunbar ...

and

Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland (3 February 139322 May 1455) was an English nobleman and military commander in the lead up to the Wars of the Roses. He was the son of Henry "Hotspur" Percy, and the grandson of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of N ...

attempted to take the forfeited Dunbar's Castle of

Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and gave its name to an ecc ...

back from

William Douglas, 2nd Earl of Angus William Douglas, 2nd Earl of Angus (24 February 1398 – October 1437) was a Scottish nobleman and soldier. The son of George Douglas, 1st Earl of Angus and Princess Mary of Scotland, he was a grandson of King Robert III. The story of Angus' ...

, who as Warden of the Scottish Marches had invested the castle the previous summer. Percy and Dunbar came north with some 4,000 men. Angus did not want to undergo a siege, and decided to pre-empt the English by attacking them ''en route''. An army of roughly the same force surprised the English, under Angus, Adam Hepburn of Hailes, Alexander Elphinstone of that ilk, and Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie. Although an overwhelming Scots victory, there is some confusion as to casualties and prisoners taken. Ridpath states that the Scots lost 200 men including Elphinstone, with Brenan concurring about this 'trifling' amount, whilst stating that the English fatalities were to the tune of 1,500 men, including 40 knights. Northumberland retreated to

Alnwick Castle Alnwick Castle () is a castle and country house in Alnwick in the English county of Northumberland. It is the seat of the 12th Duke of Northumberland, built following the Norman conquest and renovated and remodelled a number of times. It is a G ...

, but it was not long before he returned to Scotland to relieve Roxburgh Castle, which was under siege by King James.

Site of battle

George Ridpath (Border History - 1776) states " The earl of Northumberland...advanced towards the Scottish marches but was met within his own territories at a place called Pepperden on Brammish not far from the mountain of Cheviot. The Breamish is the name given to the upper reaches of the River Till which arises in Cheviots "within the territory of the Earl of Northumberland". The site of the battle is probably in this area near Wooler rather than at Auld Cambus. There is no mention on the RCAHMS website of a battle site at Auld (or Old) Cambus, although the manuscripts of the Earl of Home state that it occurred near

Dunglass Dunglass is a hamlet in East Lothian, Scotland, lying east of the Lammermuir Hills on the North Sea coast, within the parish of Oldhamstocks. It has a 15th-century collegiate church, now in the care of Historic Scotland. Dunglass is the birthpla ...

.''Home MS'', p171 The Dept of Archaeology, Northumberland C.C. place the battle at Piperdean on the Pressen Burn near Wark (Grid Reference:NT8400635899). This also given as the site of the Battle of Piperdean in the Transactions of the Berwickshire Naturalists.

References

1 Transactions of Berwickshire Naturalists 1910 p 138 2 Foard, G, 2008. Conflict in the pre-industrial landscape of England: a resource assessment. University of Leeds pp21–2 2 a Rayner, M, 2004. English battlefields : an illustrated encyclopaedia. Stroud: Tempus

Sources

*Brenan, Gerald-''A History of the House of Percy''-Freemantle, London 1902 *Maxwell, Sir Herbert-''A History of the House of Douglas''-Freemantle, London 1902 *Ridpath, George-''The Border History of England and Scotland''-Edinburgh, London, Berwick 1776 *

HMSO The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) is the body responsible for the operation of His Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) and of other public information services of the United Kingdom. The OPSI is part of the National Archives of the U ...

''The Manuscripts of the Duke of Athole, K.T., and of the Earl of Home'', London 189

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piperdean, Battle of 1435 in Scotland Battles between England and Scotland *Battle of Piperdean History of the Scottish Borders Conflicts in 1435 1435 in England 15th-century military history of Scotland