Rough Wooing The Rough Wooing ( December 1543 – March 1550 ) was a conflict between Scotland and England . War was declared by Henry VIII of England , in an attempt to force the Scots to agree to a marriage between his son Edward and the infant Mary , Queen of Scots . Scotland benefited from French military aid , under the Auld Alliance . Edward VI continued the war until changing circumstances made it irrelevant in 1550 . It was the last major conflict between Scotland and England before the Union of the Crowns in 1603 , excepting perhaps the English intervention at the Siege of Leith in 1560 , and was part of the Anglo - Scottish Wars of the 16th century . The name ' Rough Wooing ' . In Scotland , the war was called the " Eight " or " Nine Year ' s War . " The idea of the war as a " Wooing " was popularised many years later by Sir Walter Scott , and the phrase " Rough Wooing " appeared in several history books from the 1850s onwards . The phrase appears to derive from a famous remark attributed to George Gordon , 4th Earl of Huntly by Patrick Abercromby in his edition of Jean de Beaugué ' s history of the war : " We liked not the manner of the wooing , and we could not stoop to being bullied into love , " or , as William Patten reported , " I lyke not thys wooyng . " The historian William Ferguson contrasted this jocular nickname and the savagery and devastation of the war : From Solway Moss to Ancrum . In 1542 , a Scottish army came to grief at the Battle of Solway Moss and James V died soon after , leaving Mary an infant sovereign in the care of her mother Mary of Guise . The English marriage for Mary proposed by the Treaty of Greenwich was conditionally accepted by the Scottish government led by Regent Arran . However , 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 : 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 Glasgow . With this internal background , the Scots then faced the anger of Henry VIII , after the Scottish Parliament renounced the Greenwich treaty in December 1543 . Five days later , on 20 December , war was declared in Edinburgh by the messenger Henry Ray , Berwick Pursuivant . Henry had released a number of 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 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 a number of raids across the border from Berwick upon Tweed , burning houses and buying the loyalty of Scots who became " assured men . " Against these English incursions , 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 . However , in May 1546 Fife lairds had murdered the Francophile Cardinal Beaton at St Andrews Castle . These Protestant lairds became known as the Castilians , and garrisoned the castle against Regent Arran , hoping for English military support . Pinkie to the peace . The English retained a fort they had established at Langholm in the Scottish borders . Unable to secure its return by diplomatic leverage , Regent Arran reduced it by force on 17 July 1547 following an unsuccessful attempt in June . At the same time , a French naval force took St Andrews Castle from the Castilians . On 24 July Arran ordered seven signal beacons to be prepared to warn of an expected English invasion by sea . The first was at St Abb ' s Head , the second at Dowhill near Fast Castle , next on the Doun Law near Spott , North Berwick Law , ' Dounprenderlaw ' , at Arthur ' s Seat or Edinburgh Castle , and at ' Binning ' s Craig ' near Linlithgow . The keepers of these ' bailes ' were instructed to have horsemen ready to carry news of the invasion to the next beacon if it came in day - light . The towns of Lothian , the borders and Forth valley were ordered to ensure that all men between sixty and sixteen living in sight of the beacons were ready to respond to the signal . An English invasion then quelled internal dissent in September 1547 , when the English won a major encounter at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh close to Musselburgh , and put much of southern Scotland under military occupation . Haddington was occupied , along with Broughty Castle near Dundee . Beginning on 5 April 1548 , Sir Robert Bowes built a fort at Lauder . Increased French support included the services of military engineers like Migliorino Ubaldini who strengthened Edinburgh Castle and Dunbar . At the command of Grey of Wilton , Musselburgh was burnt by the English on 9 June 1548 and Dunbar on 12 June . On 16 June 10 , 000 French troops arrived at Leith , and besieged Haddington with artillery . Mary was taken to safety and bethrothal to the dauphin in France in August 1548 and Piero Strozzi began to fortify Leith with 300 Scottish workmen . Strozzi had been shot in the leg at Haddington and was carried around the works by four men in a chair . By May 1549 , the English army on the frontier included 3200 soldiers with 1700 German and 500 Spanish and Italian mercenaries . However , with more military and financial assistance from France brought by Paul de Thermes , the Scots were able to maintain resistance . André de Montalembert , sieur d ' Essé took Inchkeith on 19 June 1549 . Treaty of Boulogne . The English abandoned Haddington on 19 September 1549 . Hostilities ended with Scotland comprehended in the Treaty of Boulogne of 24 March 1550 , which was primarily between France and England . Peace was declared in England on Saturday 29 March 1550 ; a week earlier the Privy Council had sent secret orders to English commanders telling them not to move cannon that would be abandoned to the Scots . There were conditions to return prisoners and dismantle border fortifications . As part of the treaty six French and English hostages were to be exchanged on 7 April . These were , for France ; Mary of Guise ' s brother the Marquis de Mayenne ; Louis Trémoille ; Jean de Bourbon , Comte de Enghien ; Francis de Montmorency ; Jean d ' Annebaut son of the Admiral of France ; Francis of Vendôme , were sent to London . For England ; Henry Brandon ; Edward Seymour , 1st Earl of Hertford ; George Talbot ; John Bourchier , 5th Baron FitzWarren ; Henry Fitzalan ; Henry Stanley . The hostages at both courts were well entertained and most had returned home by August 1550 . In France , Henry II organised a triumphal entry to Rouen on 1 October 1550 . Mary of Guise and Mary , Queen of Scots took part . There were banners depicting the French victories in Scotland ; and a herald recited , " Voila Dondy , Edimpton , Portugray , < br > Où Termes prist & Essé le degrè , < br > Pour devenir chevalier de ton ordre . < br > Sire , voyez ceste Ysle de Chevaulx , < br > Voyez aussy le fort chasteau de Fargues , < br > O quants assaulx , escarmouches & cargues , < br > Voila aussi le fort pres de Donglass , < br > Et plus deca ou est assis ce bourg , < br > Est le chasteau conquis de Rossebourg . < br > < br > Here are Dundee , Haddington , Broughty Craig , < br > Where de Thermes , with d ' Essé , < br > became knights of your order . < br > Sire , see Inchkeith , < br > Also see strong Fast Castle , < br > So much assault , skirmish and hassle , < br > Here also close to Dunglass , < br > Further the side where sits the burgh < br > the castle conquered is Roxburgh . A separate peace negotiation between Scotland and the Holy Roman Empire was required , chiefly so that trade and piracy disputes could be resolved . In August 1550 , Regent Arran taxed forty of the chief trading burghs of Scotland to fund an embassy to Charles V . This treaty was concluded in Antwerp by Thomas , Master of Erskine on 1 May 1551 . The Treaty of Norham in 1551 formally ended the war and the English military presence withdrew from Scotland . By October 1551 , Mary of Guise herself was welcomed in England and she travelled from Portsmouth to meet Edward VI in London . Treaty of Norham . The peace concluded at Norham Castle and church on 10 June 1551 was negotiated by Thomas Erskine , Master of Erskine , Lord Maxwell , Sir Robert Carnegy of Kinnaird , and Robert Reid , Bishop of Orkney with Louis St Gelais , Seigneur de Lansac , representing Henry II of France . The English delegation included Sir Robert Bowes , Sir Leonard Beckwith , Sir Thomas Challoner and Richard Sampson , Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry . The terms included : the English abandoning their holdings in Scotland ; the border and Debatable Lands to revert to original lines and usage ; Edrington and fishing rights on the Tweed returned to Scotland ; all captives , pledges , and hostages to be returned . Edward VI ratified the treaty on 30 June and Mary on 14 August 1551 . Propaganda war . The English objective to forward a union between Scotland and England had wavering support among some sectors of the Scots population . These Scots may not have relished French domination of Scottish affairs or may have seen alliance with England as furthering the Protestant cause . A number of books and pamphlets were published in England as propaganda to encourage these feelings . These focussed on four aspects of the conflict ; long - standing debates about the rights of the English crown in Scotland ; the perceived injustice of the Scottish rejection of the Treaty of Greenwich ; and the merit of the Protestant religion . The English commander at Broughty , Andrew Dudley , hoped to distribute bibles printed in English which were not freely available in Scotland . Scotland countered the English propaganda with the " Complaynt of Scotland " , probably printed in France in 1549 . Another work , " Ane Resonyng " by William Lamb did not make it to the press . The first of these books was written before the battle of Solway Moss . This was " A Declaration , conteyning the iust causes and consyderations , of this present warre with the Scottis , wherein alsoo appereth the trewe & right title , that the kings most royall maiesty hath to the soveraynitie of Scotlande " . A journal of Hertford ' s raid on Edinburgh of 1544 was printed as " The Late expedicion of the Earl of Hertford into Scotland " . A contribution by a Scot in England , John Elder , remained unpublished . This was intended to preface a detailed description and map of Scotland . Elder claimed that the northern lords of Scotland , who were ' red - shanks ' of Irish descent would be loyal to Henry VIII , and reject the French culture imposed by Cardinal Beaton and the Scottish court . ( Elder later became the tutor of Lord Darnley . ) Somerset began a new round in 1547 shortly before the battle of Pinkie by publishing the Scot James Henrisoun ' s , " An Exhortacion to the Scottes to conforme themselfes to the honourable , Expedient & godly Union betweene the two realmes of Englande & Scotland . " This was followed by Somerset ' s printed " Proclamation " of 4 September 1547 , and the " Epistle or Exhortation " of February 1548 . The Pinkie campaign was described by William Patten in " The Expedition into Scotland of the most worthy Prince , Edward Duke of Somerset " . A Welshman , Nicholas Bodrugan , added his " Epitome of the title of the kynges majestie of Englande " , which looks back to Geoffrey of Monmouth to justify English claims and seeks to reassure Scottish fears that the civil law of England was harsher than Scots law . David Lindsay ' s poem " The Tragedy of the Cardinal " was published in London with an account of the death of George Wishart , with a preface encouraging religious reform by Robert Burrant . In October 1548 , Sir John Mason and other clerks were rewarded £20 for their archival researches into " records of matters of Scotland " for these tracts . Lord Methven understood the effect of the English propaganda and raised concern with Mary of Guise in June 1548 . The Protestant Fife lairds who had killed David Beaton and held the Regent ' s son , James Hamilton hostage at St Andrews Castle gambled on English assistance . In East Lothian , three friends of the Protestant preacher George Wishart , John Cockburn of Ormiston , Ninian Cockburn , and Alexander Crichton of Brunstane lent their support to England . Lord Gray and the Master of Ruthven were also happy to deal with the English . Other Scots were induced to sign bonds and take payments from the English and became " assured men " . A sample bond for assurance was drafted by a Scot Henry Balnaves at St Andrews Castle in December 1546 . This mostly happened in the war - zones of the border and around English garrisons . After the war ended many Scots were accused of assurance or collaboration as a crime ; 192 citizens of Dundee were acquitted in 1553 and the whole town of Dumfries received a pardon . In July 1549 with English losses in France the assurance system ceased . James Henrisoun then asked his English masters " Whether it were better to conquer hearts without charges , or burn , and build forts at great charges , which will never conquer Scotland ? " At the end of the war the French celebrated their successful intervention at fêtes like the entry to Rouen . The details of these events were published in illustrated festival books . In England a number of the English commanders had their portraits painted celebrating their martial prowess , including John Luttrell , James Wilford , Thomas Wyndham , and a picture ( now lost ) was made to commemorate Edward Shelley who was killed at Pinkie . Exploits during the siege of Haddington were later celebrated by the Elizabethan author Ulpian Fulwell in 1575 .