Historical documentary about the Battle of Neville’s Cross in 1346 – where King David II of Scotland took two arrows to the face. By the mid-14th century, England was thoroughly embroiled in the Hundred Years’ War with France. With Edward III knocking on the doors of Calais, King Philip VI of France was desperate. He invoked the Auld Alliance. This demanded that Scotland invade England to help relieve the pressure on the French army – which had been throughly trounced at The Battle of Crecy.
Just 52 days after that humiliation… Scotland faced a nearly identical situation.Join us as we walk the route around the battlefield and give you some key insights on how an English army, barely half the size of Scotland’s had a staggering victory… and yet another monarch from the British Isles came very close to doing a full “Harold Godwinson.”
*Further Reading:*
- 600 years before Eisenhower, Edward III was the original trendsetter for Normandy beach landings. In July 1346, his massive fleet of 700+ ships landed just south of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue on the Cotentin Peninsula. The beach he picked to land on is only a few miles from where the Americans hit Utah Beach in 1944. Interestingly, Edward’s ships successfully beached exactly where modern planners wanted the D-Day troops—before tide navigation errors pushed the 1944 wave 2,000 yards south of their target.Edward III did Normandy beach landings before they were cool.- The Missing Black Rood of Scotland: This was the ultimate “crown jewel” of Scotland—a reliquary said to contain a piece of the True Cross. King David II carried it into battle at Neville’s Cross for divine protection, but it didn’t work. The English seized it and displayed it at Durham Cathedral as a trophy for nearly 200 years. During the Reformation in 1540, it vanished without a trace. To this day, nobody knows if it was melted down or if it’s still sitting in someone’s dusty attic… spooky.