The Battle of Dunbar Author(s): C. H. Firth Source: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, New Series, Vol. 14 (1900), pp. 19- 52+304 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal Historical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3678146 Accessed: 27-06-2016 07:22 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Cambridge University Press, Royal Historical Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Transactions of the Royal Historical Society This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 07:22:03 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE BATTLE OF DUNBAR BY C. H. FIRTH, WI.A. Read Lov. I6, I899 THE battle of Dunbar has been so often described, that it is a bold undertaking to attempt to describe it again. My only excuse is that a careful study of the old evidence on which the accounts of the battle are based, and the discovery of a new piece of evidence, have led me to believe that the battle was fought in rather a different way, and that the two armies were posted in rather a diff^erent position, from rhat is generally supposed. And, having carefully examined the ground and turned over the evidence again and again, I am the more confirmed in the view which I wish to lay before you. Whether I can suc- ceed in proving my theory or not, it is for historians to judge, but at all events it is sufficientl new to be worth stating. The orthodox or received view of the battle may be briefly stated as follows: That the English army was posted on the Dunbar side of the Brock or Brocksburn, arranged in battle order, as Carlyle says, 'along tne left bank of the Brocksburn and its grassy glen.' That the Scottish army was arrayed along the opposite bank or Berwick side of the burn. That the battle consisted in CromwellXs forcing his way across the stream and ravine in face of the opposition of the Scots. And finally that the real battle, or what Carlyle terms ' the brunt or essential agony of the battle of Dunbaj,' took place just where the London road now crosses the stream. The view put forward in tluis paper is: That the fighting c 2 This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 07:22:03 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 2O TR,XNSACTIONS OM' THE ROVAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY which took place at the crossing of the stream was merely a preliminary to the real battle: That in the real battle which followed the two armies were posted at right angles to the stream; both were on the Berwick side of the stream, the English right resting on it, and the Scottish left resting on it; the English with their backs to the sea, the Scots with their backs to the hill: Lastly, that the real site of the ' cssential agony of the battle of Dunbar ' is a mile or so from the place where the London road crosses the stream, an(l is somewhere between the road and the hill. I*he new piece of evidence I have to bring forward is a contemporary plan or picture of the battle, something like the picture-plan of the battle of Naseby given in Rushworth's Col lections and in Sprigge's Snglia Rediviva. Picture-platls of this kind are common in the accounts of seventeenth-century wars, both English and foreign, and in the absence of battle-plans of the modern type they are often of great value. This plan of Dunbar is preserved in the Sutherland ( Clarendon X in the Bodleian Library, but has not been noticed or not sufficiently studied by historians. At first I was inclined to regard it as a mere fancy picture, curiolls and interesting, but of no particular authority. On examination it appeared that a number of details it contained did represent incidents and movements which actuallyoccurred in the battle, and it became a question whether its represen- tation of the general position of the two armies was aIso correct. For it represented the two armies as drawn up, not in the position which modern accounts of the battle had accepted as correct, but in the very different position described aboveo Next came the question who was the author of the map, and what knowledge he possessed of the history ofthe battle. The map is dedicated to the Lord 13rotector Oliver Cromu ell, and a long Latin inseription is printed at the top of it, in which the author gives his name as F. F. This F. F. was undoubtedly a certain Payne Fisher, or, as he preferred to call himself, Fitz- Payne Fisher. Fither was educated at Hart Hall, Oxford, This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 07:22:03 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE BATTLFw OF DUNBAR 2I and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He then became a soldier of fortune in the Netherlands, served afterwards in the army raised by Charles I. against the Scots, and in the army raised to put down the Irish rebellion. He fought on the King's side at the battle of Marston Moor. After the great civil war was oser Fisher maintained him- self as best he could by his pen, and, abandoning his royalist principles, began to celebrate the victories of the opposite party. Having a great facility in writing Latin verses, he wrote a poem in four books on the battle of Marston Moor, besides panegyrics or congratulatory verses addressed to Crom- well, Ireton, Bradshaw, Ludlow, and other republican leaders. In I 652 a new idea occurred to Fisher. Thomas May, the historiographer of the Long Parliament, was dead, and the Government was looking out for someone to continue his work. It occurred to Fisher to turn historian, and he undertook to write an account of the victories of the republican arms, and in particular of the conquest of Scotland. The Council of State welcomed the idea, granted him a hundred pounds, and recommended him to the commander-in-chief in Scotland.l When Fisher arrived in Scotland he presented a t)etition to the commander-in-chief there, saying that, in accordance with the wishes of the Council and in obedience to his own sense of duty to his country, he was ' determined to write and faithfully transmit to posterity the transactions and matchless achievements of your armie in tllis last expedition.' In order that he might be able to write ' the exact truth of those transactions,' he asked the commander-in-chief to in- struct the officers in Scotland to assist him by supplying the necessary information. He suggested that orders should be given to every regiment ' to draw up a compendious abstract of all the military remarkable passages that have occurred in each respective regiment, from their first advance in this country to this instant.' In addition he requested: ' That froln every regiment a topographical description be drawn (either with ink or black lead) of the most eminent ' Cal. Sfate Eapers, Dom. I65I-2, p. 366. This content downloaded from 131.247.112.3 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 07:22:03 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 22 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY castles, citadels, forts, with their several situations, as also a slight draught or representation of the chiefest battailes; to the end that they may be afterward more lively engraven in coppe1, to be placed between the divisions of each Idilia or section, that thence the History may be illustrated with more perspicuity, being soe set forth and made visibly obvious to all spectatours.' Fisher obtained his wish.l The commander-in-chief re- commended him to the colonels of the different regiments quartered in Scotland, telling them to give him information about ' such military passages as haa come under your ob- servation,' and also to give him ' free and liberal encourage- ment' of a pecuniary kind to enable him to finish his history. But though Fisher got free quarters, some subscriptions, and probably plenty of information, he never finished his history. The only trace of it in existence is this 'slight draught or representation ' of the battle of Dunbar, which was to have been one of the illustrations of the history.2 At some period during the Protectorate he had it engraved and presented it to Cromwell, no doubt on one of the anniversaries of the battle, or at one of the annual celebrations of the inauguration of Cromwell as Protector. The bearing of these facts on the question of the authority to be attached to this picture-plan is obvious. In the first place, though Fi.sher was a contemptible scribbler, yet, having been a soldier, he was not likely to produce a plan which had no relation to the actual facts of the battle. In the second place, he had access to the best possible information which could be obtained about the battle - namely, the recollections of the men who actually took part in the battle, and that within two years of the event.