On 7th May 1544 the Earl of Hertford who had landed an army at Leith days earlier,  began what

On 7th May 1544 the Earl of Hertford who had landed an army at Leith days earlier,  began what is known as The Burning of Edinburgh,  marking the beginning of “The Rough Wooing”. The Rough Wooing as an attempt the English made to force the marriage of King Henry VIII’S son Edward, to Mary, Queen of Scots.This all started after Mary’s father James V lost the Battle of  Solway Moss in November 1542.  By all accounts there wasn’t a lot of bloodshed at the battle, the main outcome was over 100 “high value” prisoners were taken by the English, it was using these prisoners that Henry had a bargaining chip, but having said that the Scottish Reformation was now starting to gather pace and the Scots in general, well the nobility, were split into two factions, those loyal to the status quo and close ties with France i.e the Catholics, and those who wanted to forge closer relations with England, the Protestants.James V had died within weeks of losing at Solway, and days after Mary Stewart was born, this left  James Hamilton, Earl of Arran as Regent to the infant, Arran was initially all for this marriage and signed  the Treaty of Greenwich in July 1543, which accorded a peace between the countries, Mary to marry Edward, it was also agreed that Arran’s son James would marry Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.Even though, as I said, some Scots supported the treaty, the Scottish Parliament renounced the Treaty of Greenwich in December 1543.  Add to the mmi Arran dramatically switching sides after a meeting with Cardinal David Beaton and him agreeing to a rival plan to send the Scots queen to France to marry the dauphin, Francis. Well of course Henry VIII, nit a man with the best of temperaments was furious and declared war that same month. The English landed at Grantor on May 3rd  and were met with very little resistance as they marched took Leith and encamped there until heavy artillery arrived on the 5th on more English ships,  these guns were to be used against Edinburgh’s gates and the castle. The main English force approached Edinburgh on May 6th and were met by the Provost Adam Otterburn and two heralds. Otterburn offered to give up the keys of the town on conditions. Hertford refused to accept as he had no authority to bargain. An English herald went to the Castle, and returned with the news that the Earl of Huntly and Lord Home had brought 2000 horsemen to defend the town.Hertford ordered his artillery up to the Canongate to Edinburgh’s Netherbow Port, the east gate into the city. During this operation some of the English gunners were killed small arms fire and archers exchanged blows, but after  three or four rounds, the gate was breached and the English army stormed through killing 300 to  400 defenders. They attempted to set their heavy artillery around the area we know as the Lawnmarket, on the way to Castle Hill, but the Scottish cannons from the castle easily picked them off, with that Hertford ordered a tactical retreat.  At the end of that day, the English retired from the town to their camp at Leith after starting a number of fires. On 7th May, they returned to the city starting more fire-raising and looting,  Lord Hertford and his companions wrote that they watched Edinburgh burn from a hill beside the town and could hear “women and poor miserable creatures” crying out and blaming the Cardinal(Beaton). This may have been English propaganda, but they were known to have  sent pro-English agents instructed to spread the word that the invasion was solely the fault of Cardinal Beaton, who was accused of leading Arran astray. The aim was to ferment anti-catholic feeling and bolster the protestant faction. Contemporary accounts suggest every building in the capital, including Holyrood Abbey and the palace, was burnt. Only the castle held out against the invaders. Scottish artillery within the Castle harassed the English forces, who had neither the time nor the resources to besiege the Castle, their ships were filled with looted goods at Leith and sailed south in two ships that had belonged to James V of Scotland.The English army retreated over land, burning villages as it went, so although Edinburgh faired the worst many other towns and villages were destroyed, including Craigmillar Castle, Musselburgh, Kinghorn, Haddington, Tranent, Dunbar, St Monans, South Queensferry, a part of Pittenweem and Burntisland Although Edinburgh was not again threatened by the war, rebuilding was a slow process. New buildings were built on the exact site of their predecessors. The Scots gained some revenge the following year at the battle of Ancrum Moor. An army led by Arran routed an English force, which had been marauding in the Borders. Mary was eventually sent to France in 1548, by this time the French had sent some troops over to help defend Leith, Arran with the backing of most of his nobles by this time, steadfastly refused to negotiate in any way.A peace treaty between France and England in March 1550 effectively ended the conflict. A formal peace was agreed with Scotland the following year.The phrase ‘Rough Wooing’ is thought to derive from a remark attributed to George Gordon, Earl of Huntly by Patrick Abercromby. “We liked not the manner of the wooing, and we could not stoop to being bullied into love.” This was popularised by the writings of Sir Walter Scott. By the mid-19th century the term had began to appear in history books, the conflict  was originally known in Scotland as the Eight or Nine Year’s War. -- source link

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