Unsullied and Untarnished: Lessons in Localism from Selkirk’s Past

It is Selkirk Common Riding today. The biggest, most important, day in my home town’s year. A day lent extra significance in 2013 since this is the 500th anniversary of the catastrophe at Flodden Field, a battle still recalled in these parts with a mixture of pride and melancholy. If you listen with due attention you can still hear the hoofbeats of history here.

King James IV was the last British monarch killed in battle. As many as 10,000 of his compatriots fell with him that bleak September day in Northumberland. Among them were a handful bishops and many sons of the aristocracy. Scarcely a family in the country was untouched by grief. And few places, so the legends have it, suffered more grievously than the Royal and Ancient Burgh of Selkirk. At least 50 and perhaps as many as 80 men from Selkirk and the Ettrick Forest rallied to King James’s call.