Battle: Alnwick I, 1174

We think of battles as involving tens of thousands of men, and lasting hours or even days.  Most Medieval battles involved dozens or hundreds of men, and could be over in under an hour.  A case in point is Alnwick, a battle fought on July 13, 1174 by William the Lion of Scotland, and men of his personal bodyguard, against a larger force of English knights under Ranulf de Glanville.

William I of Scotland, aka the Lion, was taking advantage of a personal quarrel between Henry II and his sons to reassert age-old Scottish claims to the English counties of Cumbria and Northumbria.  In addition to being King of Scots, William was also Earl of Northumbria, though he'd given that title up to Henry II in 1157.  William was constantly having regrets about doing so, and thinking of ways to get the title, and the two counties, back under Scottish control.  While Henry II was no joke on a battlefield, he was in Normandy dealing with his fractious children.  This was the time to make a move.  William had previously marched into Northumbria in 1173, advancing on Newcastle and Prudhoe Castle.  Finding both to be heavily defended, he had retreated.  In 1174, he tried again, augmenting his army with Flemish mercenaries. 

He divided his army into three groups.  While the Earl of Fife was busy attacking Warkworth, William besieged Alnwick Castle.  He allowed his force to become spread out, meaning that most of his knights and the Flemish mercs were elsewhere when Ranulf de Glanville and a party of 400 knights showed up outside the castle.  De Glanville's men arrived at Alnwick shortly after dawn on July 13, 1174, in a heavy fog.  William was in camp, surrounded by his personal bodyguard of about 60 men.  De Glanville saw his opportunity and raided the camp.  William scrambled to raise a defense and, in the process, his horse was killed underneath him and he was captured.  Most of his men then surrendered.

William was held prisoner in Newcastle, then moved to Falaise in Normandy to face Henry II personally.  Lucky for him, Henry had his hands full with his sons, the aftermath of the Becket controversy, and rebellious lords in England.  He let William go after giving up, not only Northumbria and Cumbria, but also Berwick Castle and even Edinburgh Castle.  William was allowed to go free.  While traveling back home through Newcastle he was nearly killed again by an English mob.  The message was clear.  They didn't appreciate Scottish invasions.  William recovered Berwick in 1189, when Richard the Lionheart needed ready cash to fund his crusade.  And, though Scots would breach the border several more times, they gave up on Northumbria and Cumbria, now Northumberland and Cumberland, William's descendant Alexander II reaffirming that these two pieces of real estate belonged to the English per treaty in 1237.  Thus the outcome of Alnwick I was to effectively establish the English/Scottish border as it exists today.