page_title: Rough Wooing
section_title: From Solway Moss to Ancrum
hierarchical_section_title: Rough Wooing / From Solway Moss to Ancrum
caption_attribution_description: English: Two of the oldest, restored dwellings of Edinburgh's Old Town, built close to the site of the Netherbow Port at the foot of the High Street. Both partially survived the devastating raid by the earl of Hertford in 1544 when Henry VIII ordered him to punish the Scots for reneging on an agreement made by Cardinal Beaton to betroth their infant Queen Mary to Henry's son, Prince Edward. "Put all to fire and sword, burn Edinburgh town, so raised and defaced when you have sacked and gotten what you can of it, that there may remain forever a perpetual memory of the vengeance of God upon [them] for their falsehood and disloyalty. Do what you can out of hand, and without long tarrying, to beat down and overthrow the castle, sack Holyrood house, and as many towns and villages about Edinburgh, as you may conveniently. Sack Leith and burn and subvert it and all the rest, putting man, woman and child to fire and sword without exception where any resistance shall be made against you, and this done, pass over to Fife and extend the same extremities and destructions to all towns and villages which you may reach conveniently, not forgetting among all the rest so to spoil and turn upside down the Cardinal's town of St. Andrews, that the upper stone may be the nether, and not one stick stand beside another, sparing no creature alive within the same, especially if in either friendship or blood they are allied to the Cardinal." Landing at Wardie Bay on 6th May and crossing the Water of Leith at Bonnington, Hertford's force battered its way into the town through the Netherbow Port. "Beginning that evening he continued for three days afterwards to burn the city so that not a house was 'left unburnt', not even the Abbey and Palace of Holyroodhouse." -- Royal Commission Report, The City of Edinburgh, 1951 Most of what is now seen in the Old Town dates from after this calamity.
context_page_description: The Rough Wooing was a war between Scotland and England. Following its break with the Roman Catholic Church, England attacked Scotland, partly to destroy the Auld Alliance and prevent Scotland being used as a springboard for future invasion by France, partly to weaken Scotland, and partly to force Scotland to agree to a marriage alliance between Mary, Queen of Scots, and the English heir apparent Edward, son of King Henry VIII. An invasion of France was also contemplated. Henry declared war in an attempt to force the Scots to agree to a marriage between Edward, who was six years old at the start of the war, and the infant queen, thereby creating a new alliance between Scotland and England. Upon Edward's accession to the throne in 1547 at the age of nine, the war continued for a time under the direction of the Duke of Somerset, before Somerset's removal from power in 1549 and replacement by the Duke of Northumberland, who wished for a less costly foreign policy than his predecessor.
context_section_description: In 1542, a Scottish army suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss and James V died soon after. He was succeeded by his daughter, Mary I, born six days earlier, in the care of her mother, Mary of Guise. The English marriage for James's successor proposed by the Treaty of Greenwich was conditionally accepted by the Scottish government led by Regent Arran. Arran was slow to advance the marriage due to strong internal factions favouring alliance with France and the continuance of the Catholic religion in Scotland. Twenty years later, the English diplomat Ralph Sadler reported Adam Otterburn's words to him on the Scottish opinion of the marriage:
  Our people do not like of it. And though the Governor and some of the nobility have consented to it, yet I know that few or none of them do like of it; and our common people do utterly mislike of it. I pray you give me leave to ask you a question: if your lad was a lass, and our lass were a lad, would you then be so earnest in this matter? ... And lykewise I assure you that our nation will never agree to have an Englishman king of Scotland. And though the whole nobility of the realm would consent, yet our common people, and the stones in the street would rise and rebel against it.
  In Scotland civil war ensued with the Regent opposed by the Douglas faction in the east and Matthew, Earl of Lennox in the west at the Battle of Glasgow. With this internal background, the Scots then faced the anger of Henry VIII, after the Scottish Parliament renounced the Treaty of Greenwich in December 1543. Five days later, on 20 December, war was declared in Edinburgh by the messenger Henry Ray, Berwick Pursuivant. Henry had released Scottish noblemen captured at the Battle of Solway Moss on licence, hoping they would build consensus for the marriage. In March 1544, he sent his Richmond Herald to the Privy Council of Scotland to demand their return.
  Major hostilities began with an attack on Edinburgh on 3 May 1544, led by the Earl of Hertford and Viscount Lisle. Hertford had instructions to burn Edinburgh and issue Henry's proclamation of 24 March 1544, which laid the blame on Cardinal Beaton's "sinister enticement" of Regent Arran. Hertford had also considered establishing an English garrison at Leith but the Privy Council had vetoed this plan. Henry VIII had also asked him to destroy St Andrews, but Hertford pointed out the extra distance would be troublesome. After burning St Mynettes on the north side of the Firth of Forth and taking fishing boats for landing-craft, the English army landed at Granton, then occupied Leith. Hertford parleyed with Adam Otterburn who was Provost of Edinburgh but he had been instructed not to make terms. The next day the troops entered Edinburgh's Canongate, and set the city on fire. Edinburgh Castle was defended by cannon fire commanding the Royal Mile. Hertford decided not to lay siege but thoroughly burn the city. According to the English contemporary account, all the houses within the suburbs and city walls were burnt including Holyroodhouse and the Abbey. The English ships at Leith were loaded with looted goods and sailed with the captured Unicorn and Salamander. The army returned to England by land, burning towns and villages along the way. Soon after the English force landed, Regent Arran released the Earl of Angus and George Douglas of Pittendreich who had been imprisoned in Blackness Castle. Although they had been supporters of the English marriage, Arran now needed the support of the Douglas family against an English invasion. Following this attack, Sir William Eure and Ralph Eure made raids across the border from Berwick upon Tweed, burning houses and buying the loyalty of Scots who became "assured men".
  Against these English invasions, the Scots won a victory at the Battle of Ancrum Moor in February 1545. Scotland was included in the Treaty of Camp, or Treaty of Ardres, of 6 June 1546, which concluded the Italian War of 1542–1546. This brought 18 months of peace between England and Scotland. In May 1546, Fife lairds had murdered the Francophil
caption: Surviving buildings in the Old Town of Edinburgh
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