anderwent at sea, yet he adds, ?our numbers
amounted to 700, and with the loss of three we
made ourselves masters of the island, defended by
800 English trained to war and accustomed to
slaughter.? The Queen Regent and Monluc, the
Bishop of Valence, visited the island after its recapture,
and, according to the French account, were
rather regaled by the sight of 300 English corpses
strewn about it.
The castle was afterwards demolished by order of
LEITH HARBOUR ABOUT 1700. (Fronr am Oil Paint ng in fhe Tn?ni2y trousu, Lcifh.)
The French troops in Leith, being all trained
veterans, inured to military service in the wars of
Francis I. and Henry II., gave infinite trouble to
the raw levies of the Lords of the Congregation,
who began to blockade the town in October,
1559. Long ere this Mary, Queen of Scots, had
become the bride of Francis of France ; and her
mother, who had upheld the Catholic cause so
vigorously, was on her deathbed in the castle of
Edinburgh.
the Scottish Parliament as useless, and nothing
remains of it now but a stone, bearing the royal
arms, built into the lighthouse ; but the French
troops in Leith conceived such high ideas of the excellent
properties of the grass there, that all their
horses were pastured upon it, and for ten years
*hey always termed it ? L?isZe des Chvaux.?
So pleased was Mary of Lorraine with the presence
of her French soldiers in Leith, that-
:according to Maitland-she erected for herself ? a
?house at the corner of Quality Wynd in the Rotten
Row ;? but Robertson states that ?a general impression
has existed that Queen Street was the site
of the residence of the Queen Dowager.? Above
ithe door of it were the arms of Scotland and Guise.
The Lords of Congregation, before proceeding to
extremities with the French, sent a summons,in
the names of ?their sovereign lord and lady,
Francis and Mary, King and Queen of Scotland
and France, demanding that all Scots and Frenchmen,
of whatever estate or degree, depart out of the
town of Leith within the space of twelve hours.?
To this no answer was returned, so the Scottish
troops prepared for an assault by escalade; but
when they applied their ladders to the wall they
were found to be too short, and the heaiy fire of
the French arquebusiers repelled the assailants
with loss, These unlucky scaling-ladders had been
made in St. Giles?s Church, a circumstance which,
curiously enough, is said to have irritated the
I74 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. ? [Leith.
preachers, who though profound unbelievers in any
kind of consecration, ?? publicly declared that God
would not allow such wickedness and irreverence
to pass unpunished, as it betokened contempt for
the place where men assembled for divine service.?
The troops of the Congregation now imagined that
the vengeance of Heaven impended over them,
ready to burst on the first opportunity, for their
iniquity in using a church as a carpenter?s shop ;
and there was another alarming element in the
ranks, a want of pay, which caused a disinclination
to fight.
Queen Elizabeth had sent the Lords 4,000
crowns of the sun, but these had been abstracted
from the bearer, at the sword?s point, by that
spirit of evil, James, Earl of Bothwell (the future
Duke of Orkney), and now their troops became
disheartened and disorderly. ?? The men of war,?
says Knox, ?who were men without God or
honesty, made a mutiny, because they lacked part
of their wages ; they had done the same in Linlithgow
before, when they made a proclamation
that they would serve any man to suppress the
Congregation, and set up the mass again ! ?
In their desperation the Lords applied to England,
and a meeting was held at Berwick between
the Duke of Norfolk and their delegates, who were
Lord James Stuart (the future Regent Moray), Lord
Ruthven (one of Rizzio?s assassins), James Wishart
of Pittarow, and three others ; and the treaty which
the duke concluded with these Reformers was confirmed
by the Queen of England. The alleged
objects were, ? the defence of the Protestant religion,
of the ancient rights and liberties of Scotland,
against the attempts of France to destroy
them and make a conquest of that free kingdomin
effect, to crush completely the Catholic interest
and the power of the House of Guise.?
The French in Leith cared little for this treaty,
as they were in daily expectation of fresh succours
from France j but their scouting and ravaging detachments
in Fife, under the Count de Martigues,
General d?Oisel, the Swiss leader L?Abast, and
others, were severely cut up by Kirkaldy of Grange,
the Master of Lindsay, and other Protestant
leaders ; disasters followed fast, and before they
could concentrate all their forces in Leith they suffered
considerable loss in skirmishes by the way.
The Lords of the Congregation now ordered a
general muster before the walls of Leith on the
joth of March, 1560, every man to come fully
equipped for battle, with thirty days? provisions ;
and in conformity with the treaty referred to, on
? the 2nd of April there marched into Scotland an
English force, consisting of 1,250 horse and 6,000
infantry, under a brave and experienced leader,
Lord Grey de Wilton, warden of the East and
Middle Marches of England.
Sir James Crofts was his second in command ;
Sir George Howard was general of the men-at-arm%
or heavy cavalry, and Burnley Fitzpatrick was his
lieutenant ; Sir Henry Piercy led the demi-lances,
or light horse ; William Pelham was captain of the
pioneers, Thomas Gower captain of the ordnance ;
the LordScrope was Earl Marshal. Many of these
troops had served at the battle of Pinkie and in
other affairs against Scotland.
Lord Grey?s first halt was at Dunglas, where he
encamped his infantry, while the English cavalry
were peacefully cantoned in the adjacent hamlets.
The second day?s halt was at Haddington. As.
they passed the royal castle of Dunbar the Queen?s.
troops made a sally, an encounter took place, and
some lives were lost. ?The third day?s march,
brought them to Prestonpans, where they met the
Scottish leaders, and had an interview, which is,
perhaps, the more important from the fact that we
now find, for the first time in history, Scottish and
English forces acting together as allies.?
On the first of the same month an English fleet
under Vice-Admiral William Winter, Master of
Elizabeth?s Ordnance, cast anchor in the roads to)
assist in the reduction of Leith. According to
Lediard?s Naval History,? he instantly attacked.
and made himself master of the French ships which
were there at anchor, and blocked up Inchkeith.
It was defended by a French garrison, which was
soon reduced to the last extremity for want of provisions.
All this was done in defiance of the remonstrances.
of M. De Severre, the French ambassad% at the
Regent?s court, who went on board the English
fleet in the roads.
Lord Grey encamped at Restalrig, where he was
joined by the Earls of Argyle, Montrose, and Glencairn
; the Lords Boyd and Ochiltree ; the prior ot
St. Andrews, and the hlaster of Maxwell, with
2,000 men. On this occasion the Town Council of
Edinburgh contributed from the corporation funds
A1,600 Scots, as a month?s pay for 400 men to
assist in the reduction of Leith--?a sum,? says 5
historian, ?which enabled each of these warriors to
live at the rate of twopence-halfpenny a day.?
The Queen Regent, whose dying condition rendered
it impossible for her expose herself to the
hazards of a siege in Leith, retired into the castle of
Edinburgh, where she daily and anxiously watched
the operations of her Scottish enemies and their
English allies The French in Leith were now
reduced to about 5,000 men, whose orders were to
