Battle of Otterburn: Hotspur captured by Scots

August 1388

Scottish raiders under James Douglas met an English force led by Henry Percy, called Hotspur, in a moonlit Northumbrian valley. Douglas was killed but his men won, taking Hotspur prisoner. The battle became one of the great set-pieces of Anglo-Scottish border warfare. The ballad of Chevy Chase preserved the fight in border memory long after the political stakes had been forgotten.