Battle of Piperdean

The Battle of Piperdean was an engagement in the Scottish Borders, fought on 10 September 1435 between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England. An English force led by George de Dunbar, 11th Earl of March and Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland attempted to take the forfeited Dunbar's Castle of Dunbar back from William Douglas, 2nd Earl of Angus, who as Warden of the Scottish Marches had invested the castle the previous summer. Percy and Dunbar came north with some 4,000 men. Angus did not want to undergo a siege, and decided to pre-empt the English by attacking them en route. An army of roughly the same force surprised the English, under Angus, Adam Hepburn of Hailes, Alexander Elphinstone of that ilk, and Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie. Although an overwhelming Scots victory, there is some confusion as to casualties and prisoners taken. Ridpath states that the Scots lost 200 men including Elphinstone, with Brenan concurring about this 'trifling' amount,. The English suffered 1,500 fatalities, including 40 knights. Northumberland retreated to Alnwick Castle, but it was not long before he returned to Scotland to relieve Roxburgh Castle, which was under siege by King James.