Footsteps of Flodden revisited

  The exhibition on the life of Mary, Queen of Scots at the Scottish National Museum is superb.  The timelines of her convoluted personal and political life are easy to follow and  make it clear that so many of the problems that beset her reign were the unforeseen and, in some cases, unforeseeable, results of  her or someone else’s actions.

http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/national_museum/upcoming_exhibitions/mary_queen_of_scots.aspx



Mary seems to have inherited her impetuosity from her grandfather, James IV, the  calamitous loser at the Battle of Flodden, an event that scarred Scotland for years.    Not so much from the slaughter of the nobility,  most of whom were only motivated by self interest and acquisition, but for the loss from the clerical and commercial classes. This set back for decades, the economic and intellectual life of the country, that had been flowering under the Renaissance ideals of James.
By the time Mary came to the Scots court,  it appeared unsophisticated  and dominated by the uncouth ruffians that passed for  the aristocracy, though the Reformation had brought the beginnings of  that far seeing experiment - a school in every parish- that was to lead to widespread literacy and, eventually, to the Scottish Enlightenment but what a struggle it was to get there.
 It is five hundred years since  James ‘s disastrous foray across the border to Flodden Field and, last weekend, a walk was arranged along  thirteen miles of the route taken from Edinburgh across the Lammermuirs to the mustering point at Ellemford on the Whitadder.  

http://www.lammermuirlife.co.uk/In-the-Footsteps-of-Flodden.cfm

 Play-lets and  encounters were set up to entertain the walkers and to give a voice to the “others”.. the camp followers, the commoners,  those pressed into service, those on the make…the ones that don’t appear in  the historic accounts.

In the Footsteps of Flodden - A knight and his servant have thoughts on their situation!

In the Footsteps of Flodden- a "penny-jo" accosts two young recruits on the march!

The day finished with “ Ghosts” a tribute to all the young men killed in battle since 1513,  in all the wars and campaigns. Men who were conscripted, duped or pressed into service of arms with no choice but to obey.   The finale was that ultimate in laments, The  Floor’s o’ the Forest, made all the more evocative by the soft summer rain that set in as the walk finished.



To paraphrase, or misquote, both Toynbee and Hubbard… history, like life, is just one damn thing after another.  In  most of Scottish history.. and probably the rest of humanity as well…it seems  to lurch from one calamity to the next with not much in the way of  reasoning or logic.  The religious or political philosophy that  there is a plan, divine or otherwise, behind it all, seems wide of the mark.    History like evolution , doesn’t seem to have any fixed aim or ending.  It just proceeds with sudden leaps or turns when a variation  of the norm occurs.
Even our planned walk had its twists, false starts and repeat performances but, by and large, it could be counted a success which is more than can be said for Mary Queen of Scots or James IV…their achievements were overshadowed by their mistakes.
 Poor old James, invaded another country, thought it would all be over in a few days, didn't have a real objective, didn't have an exit strategy,.......history doesn't always repeat itself but it does rhyme as somebody once said.  Somebody also said it is the sum total of things that could have been avoided.
 If only only we could learn from history but we never do so we seem doomed to repeat it ...and usually at the expense of young lives.