Battle of Glasgow ( 1544 ) The Battle of Glasgow was fought on 16 March 1544 , between Matthew Stewart , 4th Earl of Lennox and the Scottish Regent James Hamilton , 2nd Earl of Arran , and their adherents , during the minority of Mary , Queen of Scots . There was a second battle at Glasgow Muir in May 1544 between Arran and the Earl of Glencairn . Prelude . The Earl of Lennox and William Cunningham , Earl of Glencairn continued to show support for the marriage of Prince Edward to Mary , Queen of Scots after the Parliament of Scotland had rejected this English marriage proposal . The rejection , a breach of the Treaty of Greenwich , resulted in the declaration of war , the war now called the Rough Wooing . Lennox and Glencairn were thus caught offside and technically traitors . Lennox wrote to Mary of Guise on 7 March 1544 hoping to buy time by offering his innocence to be tried before a convention of his peers . He wrote that it was heavily murmured by the Governor and his council ; " that I am the principell man that causis division and braik be in this realme and makis daily insurrectionis and disobeance contrar the authority . " However Arran had already ordered an attack on Glasgow . Artillery and hand guns were sent from Edinburgh Castle . Bothwell Castle was taken first on 8 March . Lennox ' s men took up position at the Castle and Cathedral , but he himself stayed at his stronghold , Dumbarton Castle . Battle . Arran ' s forces encountered Lennox ' s followers at Glasgow Muir ( Moor ) , a mile east of the town . The battle started well for Lennox , his force of about 800 men drove the first rank of more numerous forces of Hamilton back into the second rank and captured their cannon . At this juncture Robert Boyd of Kilmarnock and his friend Mungo Mure of Rowallan , at the head of a small party of horse , who having just arrived at the site of the battle , valiantly thrust themselves " into the midst of the combat " , and decided the fate of the day favourably for the Regent Hamilton . There were about 300 slain on both sides . Lennox himself withdrew to Dumbarton Castle . According to an English messenger , Edward Storye , who made a secret journey to Cumbernauld Castle at this time , Arran then took the town of Glasgow and laid siege to the Castle ( Bishop ' s Palace ) on Wednesday 26 March . Amongst the casualties at the moor was Arran ' s Master of Household , and a Glasgow barber - surgeon was hired to look after the injured . The gunner Hans Cochrane directed the artillery at the cathedral and castle . When Lennox ' s garrison surrendered , gallows were set up in the street outside the Tollbooth to hang the leaders . Aftermath . For his timely service in the first battle , Robert Boyd was rewarded with the family lands ( which he held in tack ) , as well as the restoration of his family ' s title of Lord Boyd . Glencairn ' s heir , Lord Kilmaurs , and Lennox ' s brother Robert Stewart , Bishop - designate of Caithness , slipped away from Dumbarton Castle at night over the Clyde and then rode through the west country to England . Soon after this battle , in May 1544 , an English army burnt Edinburgh . Around 24 May 1544 Arran fought another battle on Glasgow Moor with the Earl of Glencairn . Glencairn ' s son , Andrew Cunningham , and John Hamilton of Cambuskeith , Arran ' s Master of Household , were killed . Glencairn retreated , and Lennox sailed for England from Dumbarton around 28 May 1544 . Ten years later , a number of men received pardons for their presence at the battle on Lennox ' s side against the Regent including : William Cunningham , Earl of Glencairn ; George Forrester of Kiddisdale ; George Hay , 7th Earl of Erroll ; Robert Drummond of Carnock ; and John Wemyss of that ilk . In Scottish chronicles . Writing about thirty years later , John Lesley and Claud Nau give a detailed version of events . In their account , the Governor , Regent Arran , had heard that Lennox had left Glasgow and came with an army including Lord Boyd . Lennox had departed to Dumbarton Castle . The Earl of Glencairn , with his followers and men of the Lennox , Renfrew and Glasgow town , met Arran ' s forces on Glasgow Muir ( Moor ) a mile east of the town . After a long fight with many casualties Regent Arran appeared to have won the day . Arran then entered Glasgow and besieged the Bishop ' s Palace and Cathedral where Lennox had placed his artillery . The garrison surrendered and 16 or 18 leaders were hanged . Lord Boyd convinced Arran not to destroy and burn more buildings . Lennox sent the Earl of Angus and Lord Maxwell to negotiate a truce but he imprisoned them at Blackness Castle and Hamilton . Maxwell was indeed warded at Hamilton Castle in April 1544 and wrote to Mary of Guise for her intercession . George Buchanan also gives a brief account of the battle . Again , while Lennox was absent , Glencairn held off Arran ' s troops until Robert Boyd ' s charge . Buchanan mentions the Regent ' s troops carrying off the window shutters and doors of houses in Glasgow , but not the defence of the Castle and Cathedral . Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie describes Lennox ' s hopes for the regency of Scotland and disappointment with Cardinal Beaton . Lennox and the Earl of Bothwell were set up as rivals for the hand of Mary of Guise . Lennox fortified Glasgow and Arran brought artillery against him . Pitscottie gives the date of the encounter as 28 March 1544 and says the siege lasted 10 days . He adds a detail that the captains of the Castle were won over by promises of gold , then hung . Pitscottie says this was the Cardinal ' s idea . Some details check out : there is a record that Lennox was encouraged in the idea he might marry Mary of Guise . However , the four later 16th - century chronicles strongly reflect their authors ' own political and religious viewpoints and tend to include partisan detail and suggestion .