French troops landed at Leith in June 1548 to reinforce Scotland against the English Rough Wooing. The French established a permanent garrison in Leith and built substantial fortifications that transformed the port into a French military base. French raids from Leith hit English-aligned Scottish communities and English supply routes. The French presence at Leith was the beginning of the Franco-Scottish military alliance that would dominate Scottish politics through the 1550s and would end only with the siege of Leith in 1560.
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