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The Battle of Pinkie

A historical account of battle between Scotland and England

By RavenswingPublished 3 years ago 26 min read
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This is a transcript for the We're All Stories podcast. This episode can be heard in all its glory here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1685008/9210429

ok, so I was planning on returning to France today, to take a look at what is going on with Roland and friends but certain aspects of the episode are not quite ready yet. I want to give you all the best listening experience possible, so I made the decision to put it off again until it all comes together to create something I can be proud of. because you guys really deserve the best. seriously.

Instead, as I write this it is September 10 and we are going to play a little bit of 'today in history,' going back almost five hundred years ago to Scotland on September the tenth, 1547, to take a look at the Battle of Pinkie.

Now before you ask, no, this was not some kind of alternative thumb war, and it had nothing to do with lab mice trying to take over the world. Rather, this was considered the last pitched battle in the fight to maintain the autonomy of Scotland.

It all started much earlier on Tuesday, March 19th, 1286 with the sudden death of king Alexander III of Scotland. After spending the day in Edinburgh, King Alexander decided to travel through the stormy night, against the very insistent advice of his friends, advisers and staff to visit the Queen consort of Scotland, his second wife, Yolande de Dreux so they could celebrate her birthday, which was the following day, together.

During this nighttime ride, in the storm, the King became separated from his retinue and guides. His body was found the next day. The evidence suggesting he had fallen from his horse and broken his neck.

His death brings up the matter of succession.

Alexander had fathered three children with his first wife Margaret of England, daughter to King Henry III of England. On February 28, 1261, they welcomed their first child, a girl. They named her Margaret, she would come to be known as Margaret of Scotland to make things less confusing. On January 21, 1264, Margaret of England gave birth again, this time presenting her Royal husband with a son and heir: Alexander, prince of Scotland. She would give birth one final time on March 20, 1272 to the Royal couple's third child David. Three years later, in 1275, Margaret of England dies, leaving Alexander a widower and single dad.

Tragedy strikes when the 9 year old David dies in 1281. As the saying goes, misfortune comes in threes. Two years later, Margaret maid of Scotland dies giving birth to her daughter Margaret maid of Norway on April 9, 1283. Less than a year later, her younger brother Alexander Jr. dies just one week after his twentieth birthday on January 28, 1284.

With all of his children dead within a few short years of each other, Alexander (the king) is persuaded to remarry to sire another male heir but as we saw earlier, he died before this could happen. Alexander did manage to get his second wife pregnant but tragically, the child was stillborn.

The Scots then turn to Norway and the three year old Margaret, Alexander's granddaughter and heir. Being too young to rule over anything more than the big girl potty, Margaret stays in Norway awhile.

After Alexander's death, a group of Scottish nobles comes together to act as regents, jointly governing Scotland until Margaret could come of age.

Meanwhile Margaret's father, Eiríkr Magnússon, king of Norway and the Scottish regents arrange for the toddler to marry Prince Edward (who would one day become King Edward II) of England. With everything satisfactorily arranged, Margaret is sent for in 1290 but, unfortunately, she diesen route, before she makes it to meet her betrothed.

It is still debated to this day whether or not Margaret should be considered a queen of Scotland because she died before an official coronation could take place.

With the Royal line ended, the clans begin fighting to put their own patriarch forward as the next king. Thirteen claimants step forward with the Bruce and Balliol (bail-yol)clans seeming to have the best claim.

Fearing civil War, these regents, known as the guardians of Scotland, turned to Edward I to step in and moderate.

Edward says sure thing, just formally acknowledge me as overlord of Scotland and I'd be happy to arbitrate. For a while now, the Kings of England had assumed overlordship of Scotland while Scotland insisted it was it's own thing, so this claim was less than legitimate.

The Scots, diplomatically replied that with no king, there was no one with the authority to declare their country would accept the rule of England.

Despite this, the guardians and many of the aspiring claimants to the throne did individually agree to Edward's terms, though it should be understood that they spoke for themselves alone, not for their country as a whole. They also put him in control of the Scottish castles on a temporary basis, you know, until a king was appointed.

The cases put before Edward and others selected to help in the election process by these thirteen men trying to attain the kingship has come to be known as the Great Cause.

Of the 13 would be kings, only four really had a notable claim. Of these 4, John Balliol and Robert of Brus were the strongest candidates. Balliol seems to have had a better legal case, while Bruce had the stronger blood tie. in the end, Balliol was elected king with his coronation on November 17, 1292. Though this position was undermined by Edward who now had his foot in the door of Scottish politics. Because of this, Balliol was seen as a weak king. Perhaps that was Edward's plan all along, to have Balliol as a puppet king while he maintained the true power. We will likely never know.

Regardless, just four short years after his coronation, John Balliol was stripped of power by the Scottish nobility and the council of twelve took the reigns again in an effort to separate their country from English control. To further this political distance, they signed a treaty with France, a longtime enemy of England, to create what is called the Auld Alliance.

In England, old Eddy was none to pleased by this turn of events and decided it was high time he took a more direct approach, invading Scotland in early spring 1296 and beginning what we now call the Scottish wars of Independence.

During Easter week that year, the English forces march through Scotland, meeting little resistance and sack Berwick on Wednesday March 28, 1296. Berwick was a very strategic target, being the trading capital of Scotland, it's ports make it a huge trade hub. In the British Isles, only London could say it was more economically important. After taking the town, Edward's army brutally kill several thousand of its inhabitants. Moving on from there, they defeat the Scottish led by John Balliol at the battle of Dunbar on April 27.

After this, many Scottish Lairds surrender their castles to the English peacefully. Meanwhile, John Balliol was on the run from Edward, fleeing to Perth, arriving there on June 21.

While Balliol is in Perth, Edward reaches out, suing for peace. Balliol agrees and surrenders to Edward. He is ceremonially and physically stripped of power, having the vestments of the kingship literally ripped from his jacket on July 8 earning him the condescending nickname "Toom Tabard" which means empty coat. He was imprisoned with his son, but mercifully, they were allowed to keep their heads.

With Scotland now, as Edward believes, in hand, he returns to England leaving behind English nobles to govern his new territory.

Understandably, the Scottish are not best pleased by this. The people rise up against their English overlords under leaders such as the famous William Wallace. They manage to mostly push the English out, retaking their country until Edward returns and reconquers the land in 1303. In 1304, Scotland under the leadership of John "the Red" Comyn III, John Ballial's nephew, surrenders again.

Edward feeling things are settled nicely, pulls out again in 1305.

On February 10, 1306, John Comyn is murdered in the church in the town of Dumfries (dum-frees) by Robert the Brus.

The story goes, Bruce calls Comyn to the church for a meeting. Once there, Bruce fatally stabs him in front of the altar. He then rushes out to declare to his friends and co conspirators Roger of Kirkpatrick and Sir Robert Fleming that the deed was done.

Kirkpatrick famously says " I mak siccar!" (i mok sik-ker) which translates to "I make sure" and he and Fleming go in to see for themselves. Kirkpatrick stabs the body of Comyn himself, to make sure he was truly dead and not pulling the old covering himself in ketchup trick. Fleming cuts off the dead man's head and steps out, holding the head aloft saying "Let the deed shaw!"

This story is considered to be apocryphal but if you take a look at the family crest for clan Kirkpatrick, it features a hand holding a bloody knife and the house words "I make siccar" while clan Fleming sports a disembodied goat's head and bears the motto "Let the deed shaw."

Fighting continues back and forth for a good lang time with England usually coming out the victors. Though Robert the Bruce did have a pretty good run.

This period was important to the development of warfare as a whole because it saw, of not the development of, at least early use of the English longbow, most famously at the Battle of Falkirk on July 22, 1298 where the English defeated a Scottish army under the command of William Wallace, among others.

The longbow put the English ahead of the game in matters of warfare, as was famously demonstrated in their Hundred years' war against France from 1337-1453.

fast forward a couple hundred years to 1543.

Henry VIII, the wife killing king, not the Herman's Hermits song. Though as I say this, I realize many will have bo clue who Herman's Hermits are. Pause this and look them up. listen to their song Henry VIII. Then you'll get the joke.

Anyway, Henry is getting along in years. On October 12, 1537, Henry finally gets the male heir he's been waiting for. Little Edward is now six, so obviously it's time to find him a wife.

Possibly in an effort to solidify English control over Scotland, to bring an end to hundreds of years of conflict, to break up the alliance with the French and prevent France from using Scotland as a staging ground for an invasion of England or any of a million other reasons, Henry sets his eye on the then one year old Mary of Scotland.

The Scots decline his offer of marriage. They did not want to solidify England's claim to rule Scotland or to alienate their allies the French. But there was more than that.. they were not only fighting to save their land,, but to save the souls of their people. Henry had broken up with his longtime buddy the Pope to begin the Anglican reformation in 1533 so he could divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and remarry Anne Boleyn. One of Henry's terms was that the Scottish would join the church of England but the Scots were quite with their religion as it was thank you.

To 'persuade' the uncooperative Scots to accept his suit, Henry declares war, beginning what would come to be known as the Rough Wooing. Though it should be noted that this title did not appear until centuries later, the coining of the phrase being credited to Sir Walter Scott, in the 1800s. This name referred to comments made by Scottish noble, George Gordon saying they, the Scots, did not like Henry's form of wooing. For those that don't know what wooing is, think like dating. Before this it was just called the eight years' war. or the nine years' war, depending on who you ask.

So as i said, Henry declares war on Scotland in December of 1543, major hostilities kick off when an English army led by Edward Seymour, aka Lord Hertford, torches Edinburgh on May 7, 1544 as well as other, smaller towns along the way. After thoroughly burning Edinburgh they return to England with their loot, burning whatever settlements they come across along the way.

Following this there were various border skirmishes on both sides. During all this, civil War was also brewing in Scotland between the Catholic Scots and protestants that were more inclined towards England.

Reformation was not new to the Scots, the works of Martin Luther resonated with some but their king James V preferred not to rock the boat, so the national religion remained Catholic.

Likely in part to fan the flames of civil War, English troops would pass out Bibles and pro reformation literature to the Scots. You know, when they weren't busy torching their homes.

Things briefly calm down in 1545 following the Scottish Victory in the battle of Ancrum Moor on February 27.

On January 28, 1547 Henry VIII dies and the young Edward, now 9 ascends to the throne to become King Edward VI with his maternal uncle Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset (sum-mer-set) and elder brother to Jane Seymour acting as regent. regents. He shares Henry's desire to see young Mary wed to his nephew and so continues the war right where Henry had left off.

Somerset leads an army of roughly 16,800 soldiers along the east coast with 30 warships following along. They camp just outside of the town of Prestonpans, then take Falside (fa-side) Hill to the south. While this was going on, a smaller, but still sizable, diversionary force of about 5,000 are marching along the west of Scotland.

the number 16,800 is given to us by William Patten, who was an officer in the English army. Now, as we've seen before, accounts of battles are often fudged to be in favour of whichever side the one recording the account reps. This is pretty common and can make it difficult to figure out exact numbers. I have seen some accounts putting the English forces at as many as 19,000. For those keeping score during these battles, they want to put their side on the best light possible. So they like to downplay their own numbers and exaggerate those of the enemy. I mean, if I were to say to you I was in a fight and ten of us beat up one person, that doesn't sound very good, does it? But if I say ten guys came at me and I beat them all single-handedly, that makes me sound awesome and highly skilled, right? it's that same principle, just on a larger scale.

This army featured about 6,000 cavalry, hired arquebusier from Germany, Spain and Italy, as well as a good deal of heavy artillery, both on land and mounted on the warships.

An arquebusier by the bye is a soldier armed with an arquebus, a heavy long gun, like an early rifle. It was a matchlock gun (meaning it fired shot that was propelled by gunpowder which was ignited by a slow burning match (not the kind of match we use now. think more like a candle wick.) the match is held in a clamp on the side of the gun. When a lever on the gun ( replaced by a trigger in later models) is pulled, the lit match is brought in contact with a small amount of gunpowder in the priming or flash pan. This ignites the gunpowder in the pan. This ignition is called the flash. The flash transfers into the combustion chamber in the barrel of the gun through the vent or touch hole, which is a small hole going from the flash pan to the chamber. This transfer ignites the gunpowder in the combustion chamber and shoots the lead shot out.

This match lock mechanism was a huge leap in the history of firearms. Before this,, the powder in the pan had to be manually ignited by hand, taking focus and concentration, meaning you couldn't really focus on your aim. Because of this, often it took a team of two to use. One to hold the gun and aim while the other carefully ignited the powder. By having the mechanical lever do the work of igniting, these early guns could much more easily be used by a single person instead of two.

The arquebus was usually rested on something like a wall of some sort to keep it steady. In the field, a metal fork rest was usually used. this was a long, metal rod that was set in the ground. This rod terminated in a two pronged fork, perfect for holding your gun steady.

The Scots meanwhile, are under the command of the Scottish regent, James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, numbered about 22,000 according to the Scottish officer George Gordon, (the rough wooing guy from earlier) he is the Earl of Huntly. Though I have seen them numbered at as little as 18,000 or according to the English, as many as 36,000. The Scots took up a defensible position on the western slopes of the river Esk with the Firth of Forth on his left, and a bog protecting his right.

On Friday, September 9, 1547, in a chivalrous move, hearkening back to an older time, George Home, Lord of Home, leader of the Scottish cavalry takes the 1,500 best of his 2,000 cavalry to challenge an equal number of the English in a smaller, pitched battle.

The English horse, led by the English cavalry commander, Lord William Grey, Baron Grey de Wilton accept the challenge. From the 6,000 english cavalry, Grey picks 1,000 heavy lancers. men at arms, and 500 light, demi-lancers. Demi-lancers are lighter, faster more maneuverable heavy cavalry. Their horses could be armoured or unarmoured while the men themselves would use half to three quarters plate armour, which mostly just covered their top half. Think like jousting armour, if you've ever seen that. This armour, even though it was smaller, leaving the legs exposed, it was not light. What there was of it was heavy and thick, the idea was to make it bullet resistant. though bullets don't come around until much later, but you get the idea. Demi-lancers were usually armed with a lance, slightly lighter than the normal heavy lance, a sword and hand guns.

The two sides meet and the Scottish cavalry is soundly defeated. They retreat but the english give chase for a few miles. In the end, around 800 Scottish cavalrymen are lost, this is almost half of the Scottish cavalry, Lord Home is badly wounded and his son Alexander is captured. Not exactly the best start for the Scottish.

Arran makes two more challenges to try and decide the conflict in the old way, a one on one combat between himself and Somerset, and when this is turned down, a contest of champions, pitting twenty of the best from each side but this is also denied.

For any who don't know, these challenges were a long held tradition before battle. Especially for celtic societies like the scots. The celts populated England too, but through history they have become a mix of Celtic, Roman, Viking, Norman and Angle, just to name a few. So in most cases the English tend to be more removed from areas with a cleaner Celtic heritage like Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The reasoning for these challenges is this: A warrior was not just a person. A good warrior was often the product years of care and training. They were a huge investments of time, money and resources. which makes them more valuable to their society than an average, unskilled person. Also, before the population boom of the modern age, with fewer people, these skilled warriors were even more highly valued because they were a limited resource. In celtic society, clans were constantly 'at war' with one another. Though these wars were not usually as large scale nor involve so many people as we think of now when we hear the term. We might be tempted to think of these more as skirmishes now, barely even a battle but I assure you, to those involved, these battles could be just as deadly as any we see now.

Because these warriors were so valuable, clan leaders usually did not want to put all their eggs in one basket, so to speak.

Oftentimes, the clans involved in the battle would muster their men in an initial show of force, then the clan leaders would talk. often this show if force was all it took. The clan heads would come together, solve the problem peacefully, they would shake hands or whatever they did to seal the deal, and they would return home, bringing their armies with them without a drop of blood being spilled.

If the clan heads were not able to come to terms, often the next step would be to offer challenges. This could be a small portion of men from one side meeting a similar number from the opposing clan and they would fight to determine the outcome, a one on one combat between the leaders or a combat of champions wherein the best warrior from each side would face off in a duel, usually to the death, to see which side would win. In this way, the battle could be decided while the majority of the the men from both sides would live another day. All out combat was usually a last resort.

Aside from keeping your men alive, these challenges were effective for a myriad of reasons. If it was a battle between chiefs, the losing army would have just lost their leader, demoralizing them, leaving them without guidance and often without any real reason to fight. These smaller fights, whether as a group or one on one, showed whose men were the best, which, once again, were demoralizing to the vanquished who just watched their best man/men be defeated. If the other side could defeat your best, what chance would average Joe stand against that? These were also often interpreted as the will of God or gods. them showing their favour by granting the good guys victory.

This brings up another thing. We like to see the world as a dichotomy. right and wrong, good and evil but the real world is a lot messier. Most of the time, there are no good guys and bad guys, just two opposing views. Both sides in any battle want to see their side as in the right and even the darkest depravities could be understood by them as just, them being of the service of a greater cause. At the end of the day, what we see by looking at any given side in a war are people. And people do not fall completely in one category or another, no matter how much we may want to. We are all just flawed creatures, trying to do the best we can, living our lives in this messy world.

In this particular war, it is easy to glance at the scottish and see people fighting to maintain their freedom, or the English, trying to fulfill that centuries old dream of the kings of old to unite their island as one country, as being in the right. And it seems like these two views are incompatible. But I strongly encourage you to look deeper, to see the people as they are, just ordinary men and women like you or me just trying to get by.

The next day, September 10th, Somerset moves some of his forces to Inveresk with the intent to station artillery there.

Seeing this, Arran and his army crosses the river Esk, leaving their defensive position. Likely his plan was, knowing he was out gunned, (the Scots did have some guns and artillery but not as many or as good as the english) he would meet Somerset on the field, forcing close quarters combat, where his superior numbers would be more effective and the English guns would be harder to use for fear of hitting their own men. One problem was, leaving their defenses and no longer under the protection of their own artillery which had been holding the warships at bay, the Scots were now at the mercy of the shipboard artillery. This caused the left flank, who were taking the brunt of the fire, to panic, breaking rank and crashing into the center column, causing confusion and hampering forward progress.

Meanwhile the English cavalry, eschewing their horse armour (maybe due to over confidence, maybe to cut the weight, making their horses lighter, faster and less likely to get mired in the mud of the field, or maybe they just didn't have time to prepare) whatever the reason, their horse charges the Scottish right flank but are beaten back by the Scottish infantry, taking heavy losses. Lord Grey (we met him earlier, you know, the leader of the English cavalry) is badly wounded in the charge, taking a lance thrust up through his jaw and into the roof of his mouth. According to his son, he continued the battle despite his injuries. He would later make a full recovery, being appointed to take Hume Castle (home Lord Home and his son) after its surrender was negotiated by the lady Home on the 22. He was knighted on the 28 by Somerset for his actions.

Though the cavalry charge had failed, it had effectively stopped the rapid advance of the Scottish, leaving them vulnerable, pinned between the artillery on the warships on the left and Somerset's artillery on the hill and fire from the arquebusier and English archers.

The Scottish rear takes heavy losses from the warships, costing them many of their archers, and causing more to flee.

The Scots still held a defensible position if this had been a melee, but as it was,they were taking heavy fire from three sides and were unable to return fire.

The Scottish ranks break as soldiers throw down their weapons and run. What is left of the English cavalry runs the fleeing men down. the Scots are pinned between the fast moving river Esk and the oncoming cavalry. many take their chances with the river and drown while those defeated, fleeing men left on the bank are slaughtered. Those that had made it across the river were pursued all the way to Edinburgh. All told, the battle had lasted about five hours,, according to Patten. What had started as a battle to protect Scotland, their autonomy, religion and way of life, ended as a massacre. This dark time would be known as Black Saturday.

Following this, the English continue their march to Falside Castle, and its small garrison of Scottish defenders Arran had left to defend the town. They take the castle and torch the town, killing all its defenders.

At the end of the day around 2,000 Scots were captured with anywhere between 5-15,000 Scottish casualties. Earl Huntly puts their losses at 6,000 while Patten and other English sources put the loss at 14-15,000. Modern researchers feel that Huntly's reports on the matter are more accurate with the English victors exaggerating to make the win seem more significant. It goes back to the whole fudging the numbers thing from earlier. While the English only lost somewhere between 2-600.

Though badly battered, Scotland was not beaten. They continued to resist English rule, though no more battles of this magnitude were fought. This remains the largest battle fought on Scottish soil. Hopefully it stays that way.

The infant Mary Stuart, who would become Mary, Queen of Scots was smuggled out of the country and taken to France where she would spend most of her childhood. She was betrothed to the young Francis, Dauphin of France, who would later be crowned Francis II. The two were wed in Notre Dame cathedral on April 24, 1558 though, tragically, Francis would die childless just two years later at the age of 16.

For any who are wondering, the Dauphin is the eldest son of the king of France, like saying crown prince or heir apparent.

In Scotland, fighting between the Scottish and English would halt in 1549 because the Treaty of Boulogne between France and England and additionally by the Treaty of Norham in 1551.

Mary, Queen of Scots would remarry and give birth to a son, James. Thirteen months after giving birth, Mary is forced to abdicate on July 24, 1567 and one year old James becomes James VI, king of Scotland.

On March 24, 1603, Elizabeth the first of England dies childless. James VI of Scotland is her appointed successor with his coronation taking place the following day. With this, James becomes James VI of Scotland and James I of England, finally fulfilling Henry VIII's wish to unite the two countries under one rule. This has come to be called the union of the crowns.

Though the Battle of Pinkie did not have a direct impact on hostilities between Scotland and England, it remains a very important event. You see, as I said before, during the first war for Scotland, the English debut their longbow, making them the military marvel of Europe. After this, English military progress seems to stall. As the rest of Europe was going through the renaissance, the English military stays in the medieval times and is seen as kind of backwards to the rest of the continent. This battle springboards the English military into modernity. They embrace weapons of the day and adopt complicated strategies previously unimagined. The amount of strategy and planning that went into this, involving cooperation between army and navy and positioning of artillery took a kind of thinking previously unknown. In the end, it is this ability to adapt wins the day.

Though Scotland did have some guns and artillery, they were not near the level of development that England was.

From here, England would grow to become the military marvel of the world and this battle may well have been the turning point that set them on that course.

Thank you for listening. As I mentioned last time, Halloween is coming and I am allowing you, the listeners help me decide the topics I cover in October. Polls are up on patreon and open to all patrons of any level! While you're there, check out my recipe for Cock-a-leekie soup! A traditional scottish chicken soup the recipe of which was first written down in 1598.

Also, with colder weather coming, check out our awesome We're All Stories hoodies, available on the patreon page. The link is in the show notes, show your support and get involved today!

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