Battle of Pinkie (1547): The Rough Wooing of Scotland

The Battle of Pinkie, fought on 10 September 1547 near Musselburgh east of Edinburgh, was a crushing English victory over Scotland during the war later called the Rough Wooing. An English army under the Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, routed a larger Scottish force, killing thousands. Yet the victory failed in its main aim: instead of marrying Edward VI, the young Mary, Queen of Scots, was sent to France.

Background: a marriage by force

In December 1542 James V of Scotland died a few weeks after his army’s defeat at Solway Moss, leaving a week-old daughter, Mary, as queen. Henry VIII saw a chance to unite the crowns by marrying her to his son Edward. The Treaty of Greenwich of July 1543 agreed the match, but in December 1543 the Scottish Parliament rejected it and renewed the alliance with France.

Henry responded with force. In 1544 and 1545 English armies under Edward Seymour, then Earl of Hertford, burned Edinburgh, Leith and the great Border abbeys. The war became known much later as the Rough Wooing.

Henry died in January 1547, and Seymour, now Duke of Somerset and Protector for the nine-year-old Edward VI, renewed the campaign. His plan was to defeat the Scots in the field and then hold southern Scotland with a network of garrisons.

The armies

Somerset crossed the border in early September 1547 with an army usually estimated at about 16,000–18,000 men, with strong cavalry, artillery and companies of foreign hand-gunners. A fleet under Lord Clinton sailed alongside the army up the coast.

The Scottish governor, James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, raised a larger army, often estimated at 22,000–25,000 men, mostly pikemen. They took up a strong position behind the river Esk at Musselburgh, with the sea on one flank.

The Scots were organised in three great divisions: the vanguard under the Earl of Angus, the centre under Arran and the rearguard under the Earl of Huntly. Their cavalry was weak. On 9 September, the day before the main battle, the Scottish light horse under Lord Home rode out to challenge the English and were badly beaten in a skirmish, leaving Arran with few mounted troops for scouting or pursuit.

That evening Somerset decided to occupy the high ground around Inveresk church, overlooking the Scottish camp, from where his guns could command their lines.

The battle

On the morning of 10 September the Scots unexpectedly left their position and crossed the Esk to attack, perhaps fearing that the English were about to seize higher ground or retreat. The English heavy cavalry under Lord Grey of Wilton charged the advancing pike formations to halt them. The charge failed against the dense pikes, and many horsemen were killed or wounded, Grey among the wounded.

The pause, however, allowed the English artillery, hand-gunners and the guns of the fleet offshore to pour fire into the tightly packed Scottish columns. When the Scottish left wing gave way, panic spread and the whole army broke.

The English cavalry pursued the fleeing Scots for miles towards Edinburgh. Most of the killing happened during this rout. William Patten, an English eyewitness, wrote a detailed account of the campaign published in 1548.

Losses

All these figures come from partisan or later sources and should be treated as approximate.

Consequences

Somerset garrisoned forts across southern Scotland, including Haddington and Broughty Craig near Dundee. The occupation was costly and provoked the Scots to seek French help. In July 1548 the Treaty of Haddington agreed that Mary would marry the French dauphin, Francis, and in August she sailed from Dumbarton to France.

French troops helped the Scots besiege the English garrisons, and by the Treaty of Boulogne in 1550 England withdrew. Somerset himself fell from power in October 1549, partly because of the war’s cost and the domestic unrest of that year, including Kett’s Rebellion.

Among the many Scottish prisoners was the Earl of Huntly, Chancellor of Scotland. The scale of the defeat, coming 34 years after Flodden, deepened resentment of England rather than persuading the Scottish nobility to accept the marriage.

Pinkie is often described as the last major pitched battle between the royal armies of Scotland and England.

Timeline

• 1542, 14 December: James V dies; his infant daughter Mary becomes queen.
• 1543, 1 July: The Treaty of Greenwich agrees Mary’s marriage to Edward.
• 1543, December: The Scottish Parliament rejects the treaty.
• 1544, May: English forces burn Edinburgh and Leith.
• 1547, 28 January: Henry VIII dies; Somerset becomes Protector.
• 1547, 10 September: Battle of Pinkie.
• 1548, 7 July: Treaty of Haddington with France.
• 1548, August: Mary sails to France.

Why it matters

Pinkie was a battlefield triumph that produced a political failure. Rather than drawing Scotland towards England, it pushed the Scots deeper into the French alliance and sent Mary to be raised at the French court. Her later return and struggles, from the Scottish Reformation to her execution in 1587, followed from that choice.