Battle of Pinkie
Who Fought
22,000–36,000
30 warships; 16,800 men
History & Significance
The Battle of Pinkie, also known as the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh (), took place on 10 September 1547 on the banks of the River Esk near Musselburgh, Scotland. The last pitched battle between Scotland and England before the Union of the Crowns, it was part of the conflict known as the Rough Wooing. It was a catastrophic defeat for Scotland, where it became known as "Black Saturday". A highly detailed and illustrated English account of the battle and campaign authored by an eyewitness William Patten was published in London as propaganda four months after the battle.
During the final years of his reign, King Henry VIII of England tried to secure an alliance with Scotland by the marriage of the infant Mary, Queen of Scots to his young son, the future Edward VI. The Scots rejected the Treaty of Greenwich. When further diplomacy failed, and Scotland was on the verge of an alliance with France, he launched a war against Scotland that has become known as the Rough Wooing. Some Scots opposed an alliance that would bring a reformation of the church on English terms, and saw the 1547 campaign as a religious conflict, while the Protestant John Cockburn of Ormiston welcomed an English army. Edward VI wrote "we fight for the cause of God, they for that of the Pope". During the battle, the Scots taunted the English soldiers, calling them "louns" (Doric Scots: loon, lit. 'boy', i.e. "person of no consequence"), "tykes", and "heretics". The Earl of Angus is said to have arrived at the battle with monks, "the professors of the Gospel".
When Henry VIII died in 1547, Edward Seymour, maternal uncle of Edward VI, became Lord Protector. He continued the policy of seeking a forced alliance with Scotland by demanding both the marriage of Mary to Edward and the imposition of an Anglican Reformation on the Scottish Church. Early in September, he led a well-equipped army into Scotland, supported by a large fleet. The Earl of Arran, Scottish regent at the time, was forewarned by letters from Adam Otterburn, his representative in London, who had observed English war preparations. Otterburn may have seen the leather horse armour made by the workshops of Nicholas Bellin of Modena and Hans Hunter.
Somerset's army was partly composed of the traditional county levies, summoned by Commissions of Array and armed with longbow and bill as they had been at the Battle of Flodden, thirty years before. However, Somerset also had several hundred German mercenary arquebusiers, a large and well-appointed artillery train, and 6,000 cavalry, including a contingent of Spanish and Italian mounted arquebusiers under Pedro de Gamboa. The cavalry were commanded by Lord Grey of Wilton, as High Marshal of the Army, and the infantry by the Earl of Warwick, Lord Dacre of Gillesland, and Somerset himself. William Patten, an officer of the English army, recorded its numbers as 16,800 fighting men and 1,400 "pioneers" or labourers.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Pinkie lies on Clackmannan Group, bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is sedimentary rock cycles, clackmannan group type.
- 6,000–15,000 killed or wounded; 2,000 captured
- 200–600 killed or wounded
This battlefield is listed on the Register of Historic Battlefields — a national designation identifying Britain's most significant battle sites for protection and further research. Reference: HES BTL15.
Frequently Asked Questions
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- Battle of Pinkie · Wikidata
- Battle_of_Pinkie · Wikipedia
- Battle of Pinkie · BritishBattles.com
- UKFOC 280 · Battlefields Trust (UK Fields of Conflict)
- Battle of Pinkie · Historic Environment Scotland
- Battle of Pinkie · Battlefields Trust