The Battle of Sauchieburn
was fought on June 11, 1488, at the side of Sauchie Burn, a brook
about two miles south of Stirling, Scotland.
The battle was fought
between as many as 30,000 troops of King James III and some 18,000
troops raised by Scottish nobles who favoured the King's
then-15-year-old son, Prince James.
The 'rebels' were led by Alexander Home, 1st Lord Home,
Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of
Angus, Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of Bothwell and Lord Gray. The
troops were largely from East Lothian, the Merse, Galloway, and the
border counties.
The battle went badly for the Royalists. Persistent legends,
based on the highly coloured and unreliable accounts of sixteenth
century chroniclers such as Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, John
Leslie, and George Buchanan, claim that James III was assassinated
at Milltown, near
Bannockburn, soon after the battle. There is no contemporary
evidence to support this account, nor the allegation that he fled
the battle, nor the tale that his assassin impersonated a priest
in order to approach James.
Prince James ascended to the throne, and reigned as James IV
for twenty-five years. Throughout his reign he wore a heavy iron
chain around his waist, next to the skin, as a constant reminder
of his role in the death of his father.
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