Siege of Leith
Who Fought
History & Significance
The siege of Leith ended a twelve-year encampment of French troops at Leith, the port near Edinburgh, Scotland. French troops arrived in Scotland by invitation in 1548. In 1560 the French soldiers opposed Scottish supporters of religious reformation, and an English army arrived to besiege the French garrison at Leith. The town was not taken by force and the French troops finally left peacefully under the terms of a treaty signed by Scotland, England and France.
Scotland and France had long been allies under the "Auld Alliance", first established in the 13th century. However, during the 16th century, divisions appeared between a pro-French faction at Court and Protestant reformers. The Protestants saw the French as a Catholic influence and, when conflict broke out between the two factions, called on English Protestants for assistance in expelling the French from Scotland.
In 1542, King James V of Scotland died, leaving only a week-old daughter who was proclaimed Mary, Queen of Scots. James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, was appointed Regent and agreed to the demand of King Henry VIII of England that the infant Queen should marry his son Prince Edward. This policy was soon reversed, however, through the influence of Mary's mother Mary of Guise and Cardinal Beaton, and Regent Arran rejected the English marriage offer. He then successfully negotiated a marriage between the young Mary and François, Dauphin of France.
The English King Henry VIII, angered by the Scots reneging on the initial agreement for the royal marriage, made war on Scotland in 1544–1549, a period which the writer Sir Walter Scott later christened the "Rough Wooing". In May 1544, an English army landed at Granton and captured Leith to land heavy artillery for an assault on Edinburgh Castle, but withdrew after burning the town and the Palace of Holyrood over three days. Three years later, following another English invasion and victory at Pinkie in 1547, the English attempted to establish a kind of "pale" within southern Scotland. Leith was of prime strategic importance because of its vital role as Edinburgh's port, handling its foreign trade and essential supplies. The English arrived in Leith on 11 September 1547 and camped on Leith Links. The military engineer Richard Lee scouted around the town on 12 September looking to see if it could be made defensible. On 14 September the English began digging a trench on the south-east side of Leith near the Firth of Forth. William Patten wrote that the work was done as much for exercise as for defence, since the army only stayed for five days.
In response to the invasion Scotland looked to France for assistance, and on 16 June 1548 the first French troops arrived in Leith, soon to total 8,000 men commanded by André de Montalembert sieur d'Esse. The infant Queen Mary was removed to France the following month. In the following years the French interest became dominant in Scotland with increasing numbers of French troops, while English garrisons were established at Haddington, Dunglass, and Broughty Castle.
The ground they fought on
The site of Siege of Leith lies on Strathclyde Group, bedrock that formed in the Visean. The rock here is sedimentary rock cycles, strathclyde group type.
- Catholic Scots; France: 7 May 1560: 15
- Protestant Scots; England: 7 May 1560: English: 800; Scottish: 400
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- Siege of Leith · Wikidata
- Siege_of_Leith · Wikipedia