The lead up to battle

After the death of James IV at Flodden in 1513 Scotland found itself in the middle of a power struggle involving the wealthiest and most influential families in the land. 

 

King James V ascended the throne aged just 17 months and at first his mother, Margaret Tudor, the sister of England’s King Henry VIII was his guardian. 

 

She, however, remarried which meant the protection of the young King became disputed. He passed first to John Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany and ultimately to his stepfather, Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. 

 

Douglas kept him under virtual house arrest in Edinburgh while the King’s mother, the Dowager Queen Margaret, made a number of attempts to release him. The most dramatic of these resulted in the Battle of Linlithgow Bridge on September 4, 1526.