~~
In 1543, when the traitorous Scottish nobles of
what was named the English faction, leagued with
Henry VIII. to achieve a marriage between his son
Edward, a child five years of age, and the infant
Queen of Scotland, the Earl of Lennox, who was
at the head of the movement, attempted an insurrection,
and, marching with all his adherents to
Leith, offered battle between that town and Edinburgh
to the Regent and Cardinal Beaton, who were
at the head of the Scottish loyalists. Aware that
PILRIG FREE CHURCH AND LEITH WALK, LOOKING NORTH.
After taking soundings at Granton Craigs, the
infantry were landed there by pinnaces, though the
water was so deep ? that a galley or two laid their
snowttis (i.e. bows) to the craigs,? at ten in the
morning of Sunday, the 4th of May. Between 12
and I o?clock they marched into Leith, ?and fnnd
the tables covered, the dinnaris prepared, such
abundance of wyne and victuallis besydes the other
substances, that the lyck ritches were not to be
found either in Scotland nor in England.? (Knox.)
the forces of Lennox were superior in number to
their own, they amused him with a pretended
treaty till his troops began to weary, and dispersed
to their homes; and Henry of England, enraged
at the opposition to his avarice and ambition, resolved
to invade Scotland in 1544.
In May the Earl of Hertford, with an army
variously estimated at from ten to twenty thousand,
on board of two hundred vessels, commanded by
Dudley, Lord Lisle, suddenly entered the Firth of
Forth, while 4,000 mounted men-at-arms came to
Leith by land.
So suddenly was this expedition undertaken, that
the Regent Arran and the Cardinal were totally unprepared
to resist, and retired westward from the city.
Leith was pillaged, the surrounding countqravaged
with savage and merciless ferocity. Craigmillar
was captured, with many articles of vahie
deposited there by the citizens, and Sir Simon
Preston, after being taken prisoner, was-as a
degradation-compelled to march on foot to London.
How Hertford was baffled in his attempts
on Edinburgh Castle and compelled to retreat we
have narrated in its place. He fell back on Leith,
where he destroyed the pier, which was of wood,
pillaged and left the town in flames. After which
he embarked all his troops, and sailed, taking with
him the &Znrnander and Unicorn, two large Scottish
ships of war, and all the small craft lying in the
harbour.
