The Battle of Flodden Field, 1881-1882

The Battle of Flodden Field 1881–1882. Designed by Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833–1898) and Philip Webb (1831–1915) Sculpted by Edgar Boehm (1834–1890). Bas relief of gilded gesso.

The relief depicts a battle scene with ranks of English and Scottish pikemen and archers confronting each other. In the distance of the hilly landscape, the tents of the Scottish camp are aflame.

This is a plaster cast of a coloured bronze relief in the library at Naworth Castle, Brampton, Cumbria. George Howard commissioned it as an emblem of his friendship and collaboration with Burne-Jones and gave this version to the museum in 1889. It is one of Howard’s most important Pre-Raphaelite commissions for Naworth Castle. Matthew Webb made this plaster copy from Edgar Boehm’s mould ‘in case of accidents’ in about 1886. Philip Webb assisted with the designs for the horses and armorial devices and Sir Edgar Boehm sculpted it in 1882.

The relief depicts the battle of Flodden Field which took place at Flodden in Northumberland in 1513. Sir Thomas Howard, Fourth Duke of Norfolk, is shown on horseback between English and Scottish pikemen. Howard is shown defeating James IV of Scotland on behalf of Henry VIII. James IV, on the right, is shown kneeling having been pierced by a lance. Sir Stanley was in command of the archers. Dacre and Stanley were ancestors of George Howard and his wife Rosalind. The battle featured in many border poems and ballads, including Sir Walter Scott’s Marmion, a Tale of Flodden Field published in 1808.

Border ballads and poems were popular subjects with the Pre-Raphaelites. George Howard, Ninth Earl of Carlisle, whose country seats included Naworth Castle, Brampton, Cumbria, was an artist and important Pre-Raphaelite patron. He donated this first Pre-Raphaelite work to the museum in 1889.