JAMES l? TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MARK 51
success on his own behalf. The Scottish nation, torn at this time by rival factions, and
destitute of any leader or guide, could only submit in passive indignation to his ruthless
vengeance. Yet, with their usual pertinacity, they shortly after mustered aboltt thirteen
hundred men, who “raid into England and brunt and herijt certane townes on the bordouris
vnto Tilmouth; ” and, on the twelfth of July following, the Earl of Angus was
proclaimed lieutenant, and commanded the realm to follow him in an hour’s warning,
“ with foure dayis victuall, to pass on their ald enemies of Ingland.”
During the following year 1545-6, Edinburgh Castle was for a brief period the scene
of Wishart’s imprisonment, after his seizure by the Earl of Bothwell, and delivery into
the hands of Cardinal Beaton, at Elphinstone Tower ; an ancient keep, situated in East
Lothian, about two miles from the village of Tranent. A wretched dungeon, under the
great hall of Elphinstone, is fitill pointed out as the place of Wishart’s imprisonment, as
well as another room, in which the Cardinal slept at the same period. The burning of
Wishart immediately afterwards at St Andrews, as well as the death of the Cardinal, by
the hands of Wishart’s friends, which 80 speedily followed, are facts familiar to the
student of Scottish history.
The death of Henry VIII. in 1547 tended to accelerate the renewal of his project for
enforcing the union of the neighbouring kingdoms, by the marriage of his son with the
Scottish Queen. Henry, on his deathbed, urged the prosecution of the war with Scotland;
and the councillors of the young King Edward VI. lost no time in completing their
arrangements for the purpose.
The Scottish Court was at this time at Stirling, but the council made the most
vigorouB preparations for the defence of the kingdom. A proclamation was issued on the
19th of March, requiring all the lieges to be ready, on forty days’ warning, to muster at
their summons, with victuals for one month ; and on the 25th of May, this was followed
by another order for preparing beacon fires on all the high hills along the coast, to give
warning of the approach of the enemy’s fleet. The more urgently to summon the people
to arms, the Earl of Arran adopted an expedient seldom resorted to, except in cases of
imminent peril; he caused the Kery Cross to be borne by the heralds throughout the
realm, summoning all men, as well spiritual as temporal, between sixty and sixteen, to
be ready to repair to the city of Edinburgh, weil bodin in feir of weir, at the first notice of
the English ships.*
. In the beginning of September, the Earl of Hertford, now Duke of Somerset, and
Lord Protector of England, during the minority of his nephew Edward VL, again eutered
Scotland at the head of a numerous army; while a fleet of about sixty sail co-operated
with him, by a descent on the Scottish coast. At his advance, he found the Scottish army
assembled in great force to oppose him, whereupon he wrote to the Governor of Scotland,
offering for the sake of peace, that while he still insisted on the hand of the Queen for his
royal master, he would agree to conditions by which she should remain within Scotland
until she were fit for marriage.
The Scottish leaders, however, were resolute in rejecting this alliance with England at.
whatever cost ; and in proof of the strong feeling of opposition that existed, it may be
mentioned, that the Scottish army included a large body of priests and monks, who
Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 33. ’ Keith’e History, vol. i. p. 1% Tytler, vol. vi. p. 23.
52 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
marched under a white banner, on which was painted a female kneeling before a crucifix,
her hair dishevelled, and embroidered underneath the motto ‘‘ Afflicts Ecclesis ne
obliviscaris.”
Preparatory to determining their differences by force of arms, the Earl of Huntly made
offer to the English leader to decide the issue by single combat ; but this he rejected, and
after skirmishing for several daya with various success in the neighbourhood of Prestonpans,
where the English army was encamped,-a scene long afterwards made memorable
by the brief triumph of Mary’s hapless descendant, Charles Stuart-the two armies at
length came to a decisive engagement on Saturday the 10th of September 1547, long
after known by the name of ‘‘ Black Saturday.”
The field of Pinkie, the scene of this fatal contest, lies about six miles distant from
Edinburgh, and so near to the sea, that the English ships did great injury to the Scottish
army, as they marched towards the field of battle. The stately mansion of Pinkie House,
formerly the residence of the Abbots of Dunfermline, still remains in perfect preservation,
in the immediate vicinity of the scene where the fatal battle of Pinkie was fought. The
Scots were at first victorious, and succeeded in driving back the enemy, and carrying off
the royal standard of England ; but being almost destitute of cavalry, they were unable to
follow up their advantage, and being at length thrown into disorder by the enemy’s menat-
arms, consisting principally of a body of mounted Spanish carabineers in complete mail,
they were driven from the field, after a dreadful slaughter, with the loss of many of their
nobles and leaders, both slain and taken prisoners.
Immediately after the battle, the English advanced and took the town of Leith, where
they tarried a few days, during which the Earl of Huntly, and many other Scottish
prisoners of every degree, were confined in St Mary’s Church there, while treating for
their ran~om.~T hey also made an unsuccessful attempt on Edinburgh, whose provost
had fallen on the field, and where it is recorded that this fatal battle had alone made
three hundred and sixty widows ; ’ but finding the Scottish nation as resolute as ever in
rejecting all terms of accommodation, they again pillaged and burned the town of Leith,
spoiled the Abbey of Holyrood, from which they tore off the leaden roof, and re-embarked
on board t,heir fleet. They wreaked their vengeance on some defenceless fishing towns
and villages along the coast of the Firth, and then returned to England, where Archbishop
Cranmer prepared a general thanksgiving to be used throughout all the churches
in the kingdom, for the great victory God had vouchsafed them over their enemies 1 So
differently are the same actions estimated, according as our interests are affected ; for the
Duke of Somerset had so exasperated the Scottish nation by his cruelty, and disgusted
even the barons who had inclined to the English party by his impolitic conduct, that they
were more unanimous than ever against the proposed alliance. ‘‘ The cruelty,” says
Qtler, “of the slaughter at Pinkie, and the subsequent severities at Leith, excited
universal indignation ; and the idea that a free country was to be compelled into a pacific
matrimonial alliance, amid the groans of its dying citizens, and the flames of its seaports,
was revolting and absurd.”
The Queen Dowager availed herself of the popular feeling thus so strongly excited with
1 Tytler, vol. vi. p. 31. ‘ Herries’ Memoirs, p. 21.
2 Diumd of Occurrenta, p. 44,
6 Tytler, vol. vi, p. 42.
a Bishop Lesiie’s History, p. 198.
