page_title: Alexander Crichton of Brunstane
section_title: Brunstane declares for England
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Crichton of Brunstane / War of the Rough Wooing / Brunstane declares for England
caption_attribution_description: English: Hailes from the River Tyne The swans scoot off down river past Hailes Castle.
context_page_description: Alexander Crichton of Brunstane, was a Scottish Protestant laird who advocated the murder of Cardinal David Beaton and supported the plan for the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots and Prince Edward of England. In contemporary letters and documents Alexander is known by variant spellings of "Brunstane," his territorial designation. The original House of Brunstane was near Penicuik, and another Crichton estate at Gilberstoun near Portobello, Edinburgh later became known as Brunstane.
context_section_description: The English Privy Council authorised payments to Brunstane in 1546, one in April for three months wages for a band of 100 horsemen, and in October granted his servant Cockburn a passport to carry satin cloth over the border for his furniture. The English border warden William Eure had already given him money.
  After the battle of Pinkie on 10 September 1547, Brunstane travelled with the English Norroy Herald, Gilbert Dethick, carrying messages between the Privy Council of Scotland and Mary of Guise at Stirling Castle and Lord Hertford. The English commander Grey of Wilton occupied Haddington, and garrisoned nearby lairds's houses in East Lothian. Alexander and John Cockburn held the Houses of Ormiston, Saltoun, and Brunstane for England.
  Alexander and Ormiston waited for their opportunity to capture Edinburgh Castle and deliver to the English the Governor of Scotland Regent Arran and his half-brother John Hamilton, who had displaced Alexander's kinsman Robert Crichton as Bishop of Dunkeld. They also wanted Grey of Wilton to capture and garrison the Earl of Bothwell's house at Hailes Castle. They wrote jointly to John Luttrell, the English commander of Broughty Castle on 17 January 1548 asking him to allow fishermen from Crail to supply them.
caption: Alexander Crichton of Brunstane planned to capture the Earl of Bothwell's castle at Hailes
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