Thistle and Rose: Living History

Thistle and Rose: Living History Thistle and Rose: Living History are living history performers and costumers based in central Scotland.

We cover many figures and eras in Scottish and British history and happily travel around Britain for performances and Events.

With our friends at Edinburgh’s baroque and quadrille ball ⚜️
21/09/2026

With our friends at Edinburgh’s baroque and quadrille ball ⚜️

Over the last few days, we celebrated many historical battles and their anniversaries. But what about celebrating celebr...
11/09/2026

Over the last few days, we celebrated many historical battles and their anniversaries. But what about celebrating celebrations themselves?

So, for a slightly different change of pace, here are photographs of the ‘thistle’ from Les Fêtes Galantes at Château de Versailles

Over the last few days we have had a few anniversaries of English victories over the armies of Scotland. On this occasio...
11/09/2026

Over the last few days we have had a few anniversaries of English victories over the armies of Scotland. On this occasion, we remember the Battle of Stirling Bridge, fought 11th September 1297 during the Scottish Wars of Independance.

Having fallen under English rule following defeat at Dunbar in 1296, Scotland once again found itself without a King. John Baliol had been de-throned and was a prisoner. John de Warren, Earl of Surrey and Victor at Dunbar, now held Stirling Castle for the English.

1297, the forces of Andrew Moray and William Wallace combined in rebellion against the English and both led an attack on Stirling Castle.

Unlike the film "Braveheart", the Battle of Stirling Bridge actually features a bridge. A long narrow wooden bridge that would only allow two horses to cross side by side at a time.

Surrey was concerned at the Scottish numbers he faced and held off crossing the bridge, instead opting to negotiate. The Scots were not in the talking mood and their resolve was to do Battle. A Scottish noble in the service of the English offered to take Cavalry and flank the Scots as there was another crossing further away that would allow up to six horses to cross side by side at a time.

Hugh De Cressingham, England's treasurer responsible for taxing the Scots and therefore possibly the most hated man in Scotland decided to ignore this advice as well as Surrey's warnings, and led an army across the wooden bridge instead.

Wallace and Moray timed their attack perfectly, and most of the English army that had crossed were wiped out, including de Cressingham. It was a complete disaster for England.

Sadly for Moray, he was killed during the fighting and so almost all credit of the Scottish victory went to Wallace. Scotland now had its leader!

But the war was not over, and the King of England would soon come to Scotland....

On this day, 11th Spetember 1709, the Battle of Malplaquet was fought.The Duke or Marlborough, still undefeated, now had...
11/09/2026

On this day, 11th Spetember 1709, the Battle of Malplaquet was fought.

The Duke or Marlborough, still undefeated, now had to face the greatest French Marshal of the age, Marshal Villars. Villars had observed Marlborough's tactics from his earlier victories and was able to counter these resulting in Malplaquet becoming Marlborough's hardest fought battle. In the end, the French were forced to leave the field and yet another victory for Marlborough was claimed. However, this time it was a pyrrhic victory as the Allies lost more lives than the French.

Malplaquet would later be known as one of the bloodiest battles of the 18th Century and popular opinion of Marlborough started to wane with the Torries at home labelling him a Warmongerer.

10/09/2026

Over the August Bank Holiday 26. Worcester Re-enctors and friends setup at Raglan Castle for a weekend of multi period re-enactment. Many periods were covered. Saxon, Medieval, Tudors, English Civil War, Napoleonic, Zulu Wars, WW1 and WW2. A great weekend was had by re-enactors and visiting public. Even the weather was kind to us. We were well looked after by Raglans custodians and we are looking forward to visiting next year.

And here we have another 16th century Anglo-Scott battle, second day in a row. This time we have The Battle of Pinkie Cl...
10/09/2026

And here we have another 16th century Anglo-Scott battle, second day in a row. This time we have The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, often referred to as the Battle of Pinkie, fought 10th September 1547.

Shortly before his death, Henry VIII attempted to force Scotland into an alliance with England with a marriage between the infant Mary Queen of Scots and his own son, the future Edward VI. When all negotiations failed, Henry started a campaign against Scotland known as The Rough Wooing.

After Henry's death, Edward Seymour, Maternal uncle to the new King and 1st Duke of Somerset, led a well equipped English army into Scotland to continue this demand of marriage.

The English were confronted by the Earl of Arran, formerly pro-English but now converted to Catholicism and therefore pro-France, who led a much larger army. In spite of numerical advantages, the Battle was devastating to Scotland with records of some 6,000-10,000 killed against English casualties of some mere hundreds. This marked the very last occasion that a pitched battle took place between the armies of England and Scotland.

In spite of England's success on the battlefield, Mary never married Edward and was instead married to Francis, son of King Henry II of France. Nevertheless, Mary's own son from a later marriage would eventually become legitimate King of both Scotland and England but under the name of Stuart and not of Tudor...

Below is our interpretation of a grown up Mary with a 16th century renaissance knight in the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle.

513 years ago today, 9th September 1513, The Battle of Flodden was fought. This was the largest battle ever to take plac...
09/09/2026

513 years ago today, 9th September 1513, The Battle of Flodden was fought. This was the largest battle ever to take place on British soil.

Henry VIII of England had joined the Holy Roman Empire in war against France. The French begged James IV, King of Scotland and Henry's brother in law, to invade England from the North, inciting the Auld Alliance.

There was already a huge strain on the relationship between James and Henry, and so James finally agreed and invaded from the North with an army of over 40,000, breaking the Treaty of Perpetual Peace.

King Henry, however, had not trusted the Scots, and so left his wife Catherine of Aragon in charge, with Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, commanding the armies in the North.

James initially had much success, capturing castle after castle. Finally, on 9th September, Surrey and James met to do Battle.

In spite of James having a larger force as well as the latest artillery, the Battle went extremely poorly. The artillery, which were dedicated seige weapons, simply could not compete against Surrey's older field guns. And the steep slippery slopes from which Jame's army needed to decend, meant that he could not properly use his pikes.

By the end of the battle, King James, and almost every Scottish nobleman had been slain. Estimates put Scottish casualties at around 10,000 against 1,500 English. It is said that not one family in Scotland was unaffected by the tragedy. One man even lost 7 sons in the battle.

Do you know, when we aren’t portraying historical figures, Oliver and the incorrigibly charming Matthew are professional...
07/09/2026

Do you know, when we aren’t portraying historical figures, Oliver and the incorrigibly charming Matthew are professional pirates 🏴‍☠️ sharing images of a previous performance.
Photography by Debbie Soden

Today is the 500th anniversary of The Battle Linlithgow Bridge, fought 4th September 1526.After the Battle of Flodden in...
04/09/2026

Today is the 500th anniversary of The Battle Linlithgow Bridge, fought 4th September 1526.

After the Battle of Flodden in 1513 which resulted in the death of Scotland's King and most of the Scottish nobles, a power vacuum existed, resulting in civil unrest and inner fighting.

The new King, young James V, was effectively a prisoner of Archibald Douglas. This was one of the rare occasions that a Douglas was pro-English. His father was killed at Flodden 13 years earlier and afterwards he married the Queen Dowager, Margaret Tudor.

Things went badly and Margaret attempted to divorce Douglas and to stifle his power. The Earl of Lennox, a supporter of Margaret, lead an army of 10,000 towards Edinburgh in an effort to free the young King.

Despite the large force, the River Avon caused a bottle-neck at Linlithgow Bridge, and a smaller army lead by James Hamilton, Earl of Arran and supporter of Douglas, defeated Lennox with over 3000 casualties inflicted.

Lennox himself surrendered and was taken prisoner, but was immediately murdered by James Hamilton of Finnart, son of the Earl of Arran.

Arguably, the Battle was all for naught, as King James remained prisoner of Archibald Douglas for two more years. Then in 1528, aged 16, he escaped. Joining his mother at Stirling, James assumed control and the Douglas's had all their lands confiscated. Douglas himself fled to England for refuge.

Our display as the Churchills at Raglan castle’s living history event in collaboration with Cadw and the Worcester re-en...
02/09/2026

Our display as the Churchills at Raglan castle’s living history event in collaboration with Cadw and the Worcester re-enacts. We are so privileged to be asked to attend such a wonderful event!

Photos 1&2: credit to Andrew T of Worcester Re-enactors

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