Fatal Rivalry: Flodden 1513, by George Goodwin, review Having the Scots pose the threat of invasion suited the French, of course, and the "auld alliance" often imposed obligations on the Scots to attack England and so distract the English from attacking the French. So it was in 1512, when Henry VIII of England invaded France in alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor as part of the War of the Holy League. The French king, Louis XII, was anxious to get the Scottish King, James IV, to draw off the English and tear up the Treaty of Perpetual Peace that James and Henry's father had signed in 1502, when James had married Henry's sister Margaret. James was an engaging man whom Goodwin describes as a "highly intelligent, forward-thinking humanist intellectual with a keen interest in theology and a deep religious faith." He was fascinated by scientific matters and dentistry, yet wore an iron belt as a penance for being unable to save his father's life, and liked to embroider. That he had united the fissiparous Scots was a tribute to his leadership. Facing James, in Henry's absence, was Catherine of Aragon, who had learnt much about warfare from her mother, Isabella, and the general Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, who had fought at Bosworth Field and who knew this was his family's last chance to gain Henry's favour. While some of the earlier parts of Goodwin's book feel less than pertinent, the narrative gathers pace and focus as the battle looms. The two armies met in slightly odd circumstances, with Surrey issuing a challenge and then panicking on discovering the Scots were more numerous, better fed and watered, and dug in on a hill with powerful artillery at their disposal. How or why they came to leave this position is still not certain, but leave it they did, and relying on their cannons and the newly fashionable weapon the pike, they charged the English, only to descend into confusion and a lot of mud. Not as well trained as their Continental counterparts, James's pikemen were chopped to bits by the English with old-fashioned bills. James himself was killed. Goodwin does a very good job. He's alive to the human story - the 88 members of the Hays family who were killed that day, for example - yet also confident discussing military strategy. He highlights the shameful part played by the English Border Reivers, who not only spirited away the food and drink bound for their soldiers, but then raided the English camp at Barmoor, killed the sentries and stole everything including the horses. Flodden Field was another dark day for the Scots, and the country descended back into chaos. The Earl of Surrey was made the Duke of Norfolk, but it would be another 200 years before the Reivers got their comeuppance and the border became peaceful. Fatal Rivalry: Flodden 1513, by George Goodwin 288pp, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, Telegraph offer: £18 (plus £1.35 p&p) 0844 871 1515 (rrp £20)