File:Sarkfoot - Flickr - TrotterFechan.jpg

The Battle of Sark occurred in 1448 and is the final pitched battle fought between Scotland and England during the period of the Hundred Years War, and also the last battle of the Medieval period between the two countries. It was the first Scottish victory in battle over the English since the Battle of Otterburn over 60 years earlier. Sark is also significant because it clearly demonstrated the weakened authority of the kings of both Scotland and England in the mid-15th century. At this time, increasingly powerful members of the nobility were ignoring the authority of the monarchy and striving to control it for their own ends. Noble houses of the highest echelons in Scotland and England were engaged in dynastic manoeuvring, and political and sometimes physical conflict, and these internal struggles would overtake both countries for the remainder of the 15th century, leaving little capacity for major cross-border warfare.