Killing Fields of Scotland

by R J M Pugh

  In 1528 James managed to escape from Edinburgh and made his way to Stirling where he knew there were those hostile to the House of Douglas. Now free from the clutches of Angus, one of James’s first acts was to issue a proclamation banishing the House of Douglas beyond the river Spey and forbidding any of the name Douglas to come within six miles of his person, such was his inveterate hatred of the family. In a packed meeting of the Convention of Estates (parliament in effect) in September 1528 a decree of forfeiture was placed on Angus; he and his brother, Sir George Douglas were forced to seek safety in England. James V now felt he was master of his own kingdom at last.

  James V’s reign (1513 – 42) effectively began around 1530 when he was faced with unrest in both the Borders and the Highlands and Islands. He subdued the unruly Armstrongs of Liddesdale and placed in ward several Border nobles including Lord Bothwell whom he suspected of encouraging the Border reivers. With the Borders subdued, James released all the Border chiefs save Bothwell, a decision he would have cause to regret in the future.

  James next turned his attention to the Highlands and Islands where the chief cause of the disturbance, Archibald, 4th Earl of Argyll was defying James’s writ. In 1531 James threw Argyll into prison, thus adding another noble to those such as Bothwell who conspired against him. The alienation of certain of his nobles, his close union with his clergy and his unrelieved antagonism towards Henry VIII would prove his undoing.

  In 1537 James took as wife Madeleine, the third daughter of Francis I of France. Within two months of her arrival in Scotland, to James’s great sorrow, Queen Madeleine died on 7 July. In 1538 a second wife was found for him in the person of Marie of Lorraine, daughter of Claud de Lorraine, Duke of Guise. Marie of Guise-Lorraine would prove one of the most talented, determined Scottish queens with an unremitting hatred of England. However, James’s marriage did not sweeten his temper. In 1539 James deprived Lord Bothwell of the lordship of Liddesdale; then he alienated his natural brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray by taking possession of Moray’s lands and those of the Earl of Huntly. The list of alienated nobles was growing by the year.

  In 1541 a terrible tragedy overtook the House of Stewart. Twin sons born to James’s Queen Marie died within three days of each other, leaving the country without an heir. Despite this calamity James was hopeful of another heir and turned his attention to domestic matters. His chief adviser, Cardinal David Beaton, sworn enemy of England was hampering any possibility of friendly relations with England. Then, in October, the scheming Dowager Queen Margaret Tudor died at Methven, breaking the last surviving link with England. Open warfare was not far away, as we shall see in the following chapter.

  Notes

  1 Chron. Pluscarden: ‘No single Englishman escaped his slaughter.’

  2 Bower, Scotichronicon, vol. viii, p.45.

  3 Hume Brown, History of Scotland, vol. i, p.211.

  4 Hume Brown, op. cit., pp.212 – 213.

  5 Pugh, Swords, Loaves and Fishes: A History of Dunbar, p.123.

  6 Bower, Scotichronicon.

  7 Auchinleck Chron., pp.18 – 19.

  8 Tytler, History of Scotland, vol. iv, p.145; Hume Brown op. cit., vol. i, pp.240 – 1.

  9 Brotchie, Battlefields of Scotland, p.100.

  10 Nimmo, The History of Stirlingshire, Chap.X1.

  11 Pitscottie, Historie and Chronicles of Scotland; Buchanan, A History of Scotland.

  12 Hume Brown, op. cit., vol. i, p.287.

  13 Brotchie, op. cit., pp.101 – 2.

  14 Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, p.lxix.

  15 Hume Brown, op. cit., vol. i, p.298.

  16 Brotchie, op. cit., pp.115 – 16.

  17 Hume Brown, op. cit., vol. i, p.372.

  Aberlemno Stone depicting what is believed to be a scene from the Battle of Dún Nechtáin, AD 685. (Right) Close-up of Aberlemno Stone showing detail. (Courtesy of the Rev. Brian Ramsay, Aberlemno Parish Church, near Forfar: Photograph by Mark Hoogiemstra)

  Possible site of the first Battle of Dunbar, 1296. (Courtesy of John V. Harris)

  Athelstaneford Visitor Centre, commemorating the Battle of Athelstaneford, AD 832. (Courtesy of John V. Harris)

  Wallace Monument, Abbeycraig, Stirling. (Courtesy of Simon Lee)

  Detail of two statues of William Wallace. (Courtesy of Simon Lee)

  Full stature of Robert the Bruce by C. d’O. Pilkington-Jackson. (Right) Close-up of Bruce wielding his war axe. (Courtesy of Simon Lee)

  Robert the Bruce. (Courtesy of Simon Lee)

  Oliver Cromwell. (Author’s collection)

  David Leslie. (Author’s collection)

  James Graham, 1st Marquis of Montrose. Painting attributed to William van Hauthorst. (Courtesy of the National Galleries of Scotland)

  Monumental inscription commemorating the Battle of Dunbar, 1650. (Author’s collection)

  John, Lord Graham of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee. Painting by an unknown artist. (Courtesy of the National Galleries of Scotland)

  Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie. (Author’s collection)

  Drummossie Moor. (Courtesy of Simon Lee)

  Monument to the raising of the Jacobite Standard at Glenfinnan. (Courtesy of Simon Lee)

  Scene depicting the Battle of Culloden, 1746, from an engraving published in 1797. (Courtesy of the National Museum of Scotland)

  William Augustus, 1st Duke of Cumberland. Painting after Sir Joshua Reynolds. (Courtesy of the National Galleries of Scotland)

  Inscription on the Culloden Memorial Cairn, Drummossie Moor. (Courtesy of Simon Lee)

  Clan Mackintosh grave. (Courtesy of Simon Lee)

  Clan Fraser grave. (Courtesy of Simon Lee)

  Chapter 8

  The Rough Wooing and Mary, Queen of Scots: 1542 – 1568

  The year 1542 began with talk of a meeting between James V and Henry VIII in January; what might have emerged from this cannot be certain, although the main topic would have been France, the country mainly responsible for the ill feeling between Scotland and England. The antagonism between Francis I of France and Henry VIII had reached breaking point and James could hardly refuse Francis’s request for help, being bound to France as his father had been. For his part, Henry resorted to desperate measures to physically remove James from Scotland and politically from French influence; he even contemplated kidnapping James and bringing him to England. Fortunately, Henry’s council of advisers refused to agree to this proposal which would have contravened the laws of Western Europe, let alone England. Frustrated by this rebuffal, Henry took the first step towards open warfare.

  Haddonrigg

  Hostilities began – or rather were resumed – in August 1542 when Sir Robert Bowes, Deputy Warden of the English East March led a force of 3,000 into Teviotdale; Bowes was accompanied by the exiled Archibald, 6th Earl of Angus and his brother, Sir George Douglas. Bowes was intent on pillaging the Scottish east and middle Marches but was halted by the Earl of Huntly who had gathered a small band which was reinforced by the timely arrival of 400 Scottish lancers led by Lord Hume on 1 September, the very day of the battle. Huntly and Hume captured 600 of Bowes’s men including Bowes himself; the English dead numbered seventy.

  When Henry VIII learnt of this humiliation, he ordered a full-scale invasion of Scotland, the main objective of the campaign being to capture Edinburgh. The Duke of Norfolk, son of the Earl of Surrey, victor of Flodden, made preliminary arrangements for the invading army. However, Norfolk soon appreciated the logistical problems of provisioning Henry’s army of 40,000. Norfolk’s success did not realize Henry’s expectations although he burnt Roxburgh, Kelso and about twenty villages. Poorly supplied and harried by the Earl of Huntly and Lords Hume and Seton, Norfolk was obliged to retreat in disorder to Berwick where he disbanded his army.

  James V was keen to mount a retaliatory raid in northern England but was frustrated by his nobles’ lack of enthusiasm for war. Although he managed to assemble an army of at least 10,000 backed by the gre
at churchmen he favoured, James soon discovered how unpopular he had become among his nobles, the real fighting men. On 23 November James’s army lodged at Langholm and Morton Kirk. Before daybreak on 24 November the two divisions crossed the river Esk, intent on raiding in the vicinity of Carlisle. However, Sir Thomas Wharton, Deputy Warden of the English West March had collected a force of 3,000 and sallied out of Carlisle to confront the invaders. The two armies came face to face near the river Esk, east of Gretna Green, Dumfriesshire. James was not present; he remained at Lochmaben to await the results of the battle.

  Solway Moss

  There was confusion in the Scottish army as to its leader. Sir Oliver Sinclair, a favourite of James V claimed he had been given the King’s commission; this was disputed by Robert, Lord Maxwell, Warden of the Scottish West March. Sinclair persisted in his claim and the command structure collapsed even before a blow was struck. Although Maxwell’s position was near Gretna, the battle of Solway Moss was fought on the English bank of the river Esk. James’s army of 10,000 was confronted by Wharton’s 3,000; it outnumbered the English by more than three to one and should have ensured a Scottish victory. Wharton planned his strategy with great care; he had to entice the Scots onto a tract of land where it would be difficult for them to deploy in full battle array. Wharton also deceived the Scots into thinking his force was larger than it was. Confusion in the Scottish command was blatantly advertised by Sir Oliver Sinclair who boasted to the English in the field that he, not Maxwell, was James V’s commander in chief. Maxwell was dumbstruck by this egotistical show and his following refused to support Sinclair in the ensuing ‘battle’. The English suffered seven casualties, the Scots twenty. In their panic, the Scottish spearmen were forced to escape by the only means available to them, a narrow ford across the Esk near the hill of Arthuret, beyond which was the Solway Moss, or marsh from which the battle takes its name. As they attempted their escape, many Scots were drowned. The prisoners taken at Solway Moss numbered 1,200, including two earls, five barons and more than 500 other gentry. James, lying prostrate in Lochmaben Castle suffering from a fever, joined in the retreat from Solway Moss. His life came to a close in Falkland Palace, Fife, where on 14 December 1542, he died more due to a lack of a will to live than illness. His legacy to Scotland was the birth of a one-week-old baby daughter, Marie. Before dying, James made a gloomy prediction about the dynasty of royal Stewarts: ‘It cam wi’ [came with] a lass and it will gang [go] wi’ a lass.’ James was, of course, referring to the way the Stewarts came to the throne through Marjorie, daughter of Robert the Bruce and her marriage to Walter, the High Steward of Scotland in 1315. His prediction did come true, but not until 1714; Stewart monarchs would rule Scotland, then Scotland, England and Ireland for the next 170 years, with a break of fourteen years between 1688 and 1702. (The last Stewart monarch of Britain, Anne, died childless in 1714, when the throne of Britain passed to the Hanoverian George I under the Act of Settlement of 1701.) James was only thirty when he died; his passing was marked more by the common folk, who had a genuine affection for their King, calling him the Gaberlunzie (beggar) King, the Red Tod (fox) and King of the Commons, the last on account of his habit of assuming disguises and mingling freely with his people with the purpose of discovering their needs.

  Born on 8 December 1542 the baby Marie was crowned Queen of Scots in the Chapel Royal of Stirling Castle on 9 September 1543. The date chosen for her coronation was deliberate; it was the thirtieth anniversary of her grandfather James IV’s defeat at Flodden. According to one modern historian1 the baby sat on her mother Marie of Guise’s knee; it was said that when the sceptre was near the baby, she reached out and clutched it with her tiny hand. Those witnessing the ceremony took this to be a favourable omen. Once again Scotland would be ruled by a French regent, Marie of Guise-Lorraine, this time for the next eighteen years. (From here on, her daughter Marie, the future Queen of Scots’ is called Mary to distinguish her from her mother.)

  News of James’s death and Mary’s birth must have sounded sweet political music to Henry VIII’s ears. After Solway Moss Henry had harvested a rich catch of Scottish magnates – the Earls of Glencairn and Cassillis, Lords Maxwell, Fleming, Somerville, Oliphant and Gray being among the prominent nobles. Henry would put these hostages to good use in his determination to bring Scotland to her knees by a combination of political and diplomatic pressure. He also saw a way of ending the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France, thereby forcing Scotland to develop closer political and trading links with England. To this end he embarked on a policy to arrange the marriage of his son Edward VI to the infant Mary, Queen of Scots. However, Henry reckoned without the strength and determination of Marie of Guise-Lorraine, one of the most formidable queens in Scotland’s history.

  At the outset James, 3rd Lord Hamilton and 2nd Earl of Arran, next in line to the Scottish throne, was appointed regent. Henry VIII did all in his power to create instability in Scotland and he possessed a Trojan horse in the persons of Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus and his brother Sir George Douglas, exiled from Scotland since 1528 for opposing James V; both might return across the Border and exert their considerable influence and following in furthering Henry’s ambitions. In January 1543 Angus and Douglas did in fact return to Scotland, shortly followed by the captives from Solway Moss; a kind of Fifth Column, each and every one of them was bound by a pledge – made secure by hostages for their release – to promote English interests. Henry VIII argued that it was Cardinal David Beaton of St Andrews who was the villain of the piece, fomenting unrest in Scotland by his opposition to the English Reformation taking place and seeking Catholic France’s assistance at the expense of Scotland’s stability. With the return of the Solway Moss prisoners – known as ‘English Lords’ and ‘assured Scots’, these men secured the arrest of Beaton who was then warded in the Earl of Morton’s house in Dalkeith. A pro- English party thus formed, it seemed to be the prevailing political group. At a meeting of the Committee of Estates on 12 March, English interests gained yet another coup; three ambassadors were appointed to negotiate with Henry VIII regarding a marriage between the infant Queen Mary and Henry’s son, the future Edward VI, then aged five years. Further power came the way of the pro-English party with the arrival in Dunbar of Sir Ralph Sadler, Henry’s sagacious Secretary of State with orders to secure a marriage contract between Mary and Edward. It was soon apparent, however, that the nation was opposed to any form of alliance with England. On Beaton’s side and favourable to France and the Catholic religion were powerful nobles – the Earls of Huntly, Moray, Bothwell and Argyll who were now demanding the release of Beaton. Then two important persons arrived from France – the Earl of Lennox and the regent Arran’s illegitimate brother John Hamilton, Abbot of Paisley; both were staunch supporters of France and the Catholic faith. Abbot Hamilton was particularly influential, exerting considerable power over his weak brother, James, Earl of Arran and regent of Scotland. However, negotiations with England went ahead; on 1 July a treaty was signed at Greenwich between the two countries. The Treaty of Greenwich stipulated that Mary Stewart would marry Edward in her tenth year; further, there was to be an inviolable peace until a year after the death of one or other of the young couple. This was less than Henry VIII had hoped for; he had demanded that Mary be sent to England in 1543 and that the Scots break their alliance with France. The Scots would not give way; Mary would stay in Scotland until her wedding and France was to be included in the treaty of peace. For the moment Henry was content to leave things as they were, hoping in the future to exert further influence on the domestic affairs of Scotland.

  Meanwhile, the pro-French party was gaining ground. The regent Arran was wavering in his attitude towards England; French gold was literally flowing into Scotland and it was thought that Marie of Guise’s brother was poised to bring an army to the Scots’ aid. At the end of June a French fleet was sighted off the coast which further strengthened the pro-French party led by Cardinal Beaton. On 21 July Beaton an
d the Earls of Huntly, Lennox, Argyll and Bothwell entered Linlithgow at the head of between 6,000 and 7,000 men, intent on seizing the young Queen. Despite the counsel of Sir Ralph Sadler, now residing in Scotland in order to keep Henry VIII informed of developments, the Earl of Arran entered into negotiations with Beaton; the result was that the Queen was to be taken into the custody of four persons, two to be named by Arran and two by Beaton. On 26 July the Queen was taken from Linlithgow Palace to Stirling Castle and was thus safe from any further English attempts to abduct her.

  On 25 August Arran ratified the Treaty of Greenwich, although only those nobles favouring England attended the ceremony in the Abbey Church of Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh. Learning of Arran’s volte face regarding the young Queen’s custody, Henry VIII was consumed with rage. At first he had opposed Arran’s appointment as regent, then he had not only supported him but provided him with money – bribes in effect. Then Henry offered his daughter Elizabeth by Anne Boleyn in marriage to Arran’s son, promising to make Arran king of Scotland but only north of the Firth of Forth. Arran changed his mind in the face of the prevailing politic weather; one day he supported the alliance with France and the Catholic faith, the next he was pro-England and the introduction of the Reformation in Scotland. Finally, Arran exhausted what remained of Henry’s patience by submitting to Cardinal Beaton on 8 September.2 The following day, the infant Queen Mary was crowned at Stirling. Arran remained in nominal charge of the kingdom but was subject to the direction of a council, two of whose members were the Queen mother, Marie of Guise, and Cardinal Beaton. As a pledge of his loyalty, Arran placed all the strong castles in the hands of Beaton. An irascible Henry VIII virtually exploded at the news, despite the fact that he still controlled a significant group of powerful Scottish nobles – Earls Angus, Glencairn, Cassillis and Rothes and a large number of barons including Angus’s brother, Sir George Douglas of Pittendreich.