Silver lining to Flodden disaster

FLODDEN 1513 was indeed a great Scottish military disaster (Insight, 18 August), but it led to the Union of the Crowns in 1603 under James VI of Scotland; the end of absolute monarchy through parliament; Civil War and Puritanism. Nor must we forget the King James English Bible or the Tudor reformation. It led ultimately to the Union. Without Scotland, and that Union, Britain would never have become great, nor exercised such an influence in creating the modern western world.

Ian Forrester, Kirkcaldy