"Almonshire" is "Alneshire," or "Alnwickshire,"
where is the Percy's Alnwick Castle. In Froissart the Scots burn and
waste the region of Alneshire, all round Alnwick, but the Earl of
Northumberland holds out in the castle, unattacked, and sends his sons,
Henry and Ralph Percy, to Newcastle to gather forces, and take the
retreating Scots between two fires, Newcastle and Alnwick. But the
Scots were not such poor strategists as to return by the way they had
come. In a skirmish or joust at Newcastle, says Froissart, Douglas
captured Percy's lance and pennon, with his blazon of arms, and vowed
that he would set it up over his castle of Dalkeith. Percy replied
that he would never carry it out of England. To give Percy a
chivalrous chance of recovering his pennon and making good his word,
Douglas insists on waiting at Otterburn to besiege the castle there;
and he is taken by surprise (as in the ballads) when a mounted man
brings news of Percy's approach. No tryst is made by Percy and Douglas
at Otterburn in Froissart; Douglas merely tarried there by the courtesy
of Scotland.
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