The siege of St Andrews Castle (1546–1547) followed the killing of David Cardinal Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrews, by a group of Protestants at St Andrews Castle. They remained in the castle and were besieged by the Governor of Scotland, Regent Arran. However, over 18 months the Scottish besieging forces made little impact, and the Castle finally surrendered to a French naval force after artillery bombardment. The Protestant garrison, including the preacher John Knox, were taken to France and used as galley slaves.Jane Dawson, John Knox (Yale, 2016), pp. 39–53.
Murder of the Cardinal St Andrews castle was the residence of Cardinal David Beaton and his mistress Marion Ogilvy. Beaton's strong opposition to the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, with Prince Edward, later Edward VI of England, the son and heir of Henry VIII, had led to the war of the Rough Wooing with England.
In 1546, David Beaton imprisoned the Protestant preacher George Wishart in the castle's Sea Tower, then had him burnt at the stake in front of the castle walls on 1 March. Wishart's friends included a group of well-connected Protestant Fife Lairds, some of whom had previously conspired with Henry VIII and his ambassador Ralph Sadler either to capture or assassinate Beaton.
On Saturday 29 May 1546, the lairds formed four teams. Norman Leslie, Master of Rothes, and three men, perhaps by disguising themselves as masons when some building work was in progress, got into the castle. James Melville and his companions got in by pretending to have an appointment with the Cardinal. William Kirkcaldy of Grange and eight men gained entry to the castle at the drawbridge and when they were joined by John Leslie of Parkhill, they overpowered the porter Ambrose Stirling, stabbed him and threw his body in the ditch.
The genuine masons and the garrison supervised by Kirkcaldy left at the castle gate, where the Cardinal's mistress Marion Ogilvy had recently exited. Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie wrote that Peter Carmichael stabbed the Cardinal in his chamber, or on the spiral stair, in the east blockhouse tower. To deter the Cardinal's supporters in the town led by the Provost, James Learmonth of Dairsie, from attempting a rescue, they hung his body in public view from his window or from the parapet at the front of the castle.State Papers Henry VIII, vol. 5, part IV part 2 (London, 1836), p. 560, James Lindsay to Wharton, 29 May: Margaret H. B. Sanderson, Cardinal of Scotland (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1986), pp. 226–228.
The son of the Governor of Scotland, James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran, and second after his father in line to the crown of Scotland, was already in the castle as Beaton's hostage: now he was the pawn of the Fife lairds.Jane Dawson, John Knox (Yale, 2016), p. 40. John Knox wrote that the defenders covered Beaton's body with salt, wrapped it in lead, and buried it in the Sea Tower of the castle.John Knox, History of the Reformation, vol. 1 (1831), p. 61. David Lyndsay made the Cardinal's ghost voice this detail in his Tragedie of the Cardinall; "Thay saltit me, syne cloist me in a kist."Janet Hadley Williams, ed., Sir David Lyndsay, Selected Poems (Glasgow, 2000), p. 121.
Siege
Following the murder, the Protestants took refuge in the castle. These "Castilians" included; Norman Leslie, Master of Rothes; James Kirkcaldy of Grange; Master Henry Balnaves; and Captain John Borthwick. Regent Arran was forced to delay his response as he was busy at the siege of Dumbarton Castle on the west of Scotland, which he took from the English on 8 July 1546.Letters & Papers Henry VIII, 21:2 (London, 1910), no. 6
The Parliament of Scotland at Stirling on 11 June 1546 issued a proclamation that none should sell the Castilians any kind of supplies. The lairds were summoned to plead their case in Edinburgh; they refused and Norman Leslie was declared a traitor. For the time of his captivity, Regent Arran's son was excluded from the Scottish royal succession.see Records of the Parliaments of Scotland (University of St Andrews) William Kirkcaldy of Grange negotiated with Henry VIII in England, offering James Hamilton to become a hostage in England. In September, Henry VIII ordered some supplies to be sent in six ships commanded by William Tyrrell with the military engineer Richard Lee, and that the Lairds should hand over Hamilton to be brought to England (but this was not done).Letters and Papers Henry VIII, 21:2 (London, 1910), nos. 122, 123, 134 (2). English intervention was hampered by Scottish diplomacy in peace negotiations. England and France were now at peace. A mission to St Andrews would be a new cause for war between Scotland and England, preventing the 'comprehension' of Scotland in this new treaty. Mary of Hungary believed the Scottish diplomats's chief purpose was delaying English action at St Andrews. Scotland remained at war with the Empire, meaning that there was no redress for piracy, and she sent her envoy, Matthew Strick, to Scotland to clarify the situation.Letters & Papers Henry VIII, 21:2 (London, 1910) nos. 92, 162.
At first at St Andrews, according to Pitscottie, the garrison harassed the countryside round about the town, raising fires and "using their bodies in lechery with fair women."Marcus Merriman, The Rough Wooings (Tuckwell, 2000), p. 215 (modernised here) Regent Arran made preparations for a long siege. Monasteries in Scotland were ordered to pay a tax of £6,000 towards the costs of recovering the castle.Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol.8, (Edinburgh, 1908), pp. 481–2. Norman Leslie and Kirkcaldy of Grange with their accomplices were excommunicated for the slaughter of the Cardinal. On 23 November a copy of this "great cursing" was made and delivered to the Castle.Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 9 (Edinburgh, 1911), pp. xiv, 35.
The Scottish siege
In October 1546 Arran and the Scottish Privy Council met at St Andrews, and siege operations commenced in earnest. A mine, a tunnel to undermine the Fore Tower or enter the castle, was begun by Regent Arran's men. The French ambassador Odet de Selve knew about the mine by 10 November, from an 18-day-old eye-witness account. The defenders dug a successful counter-mine to meet it.Correspondance Politique de Odet de Selve (Paris, 1888), p. 54, 10 November 1546 Both the mine and counter-mines were cut through solid rock. The tunnels were rediscovered in 1879 and remain open to the public today. The defenders dug three mine tunnels before they reached the attackers. The successful countermine tunnel was started near the Fore Tower outside the walls of the main central enclosure of the castle.Richard Fawcett & Chris Tabraham, St Andrews Castle (Historic Scotland, 2001), pp. 6, 18–19.
Arran's guns included "Crook-mow" or "Thrawynmouthe", and "Deaf Meg."Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 9 (Edinburgh, 1911), 103: Pitscottie. The artillery was directed by Robert Hamilton of Briggis who spent at least £3756 Scots on the wages of workmen called pioneers who handled the heavy guns and made emplacements.Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 9 (Edinburgh, 1911), p. 138. Arran offered terms if the lairds vacated the castle and released his son. The garrison would be conveyed to Blackness Castle. These terms were refused. Arran brought his guns to the 'west trenches' to batter down the Sea Tower, hall, and chapel from the west, and shot at the hall and the chapel from the east with feathered bullets. The defenders shot back and killed the royal gunner John Borthwick, Argyll's master gunner, and other artillerymen. After two days of losses to his gunners the Regent abandoned the cannon.State Papers Henry VIII, vol. 5, part IV part 2, (London, 1836), pp. 580–581.
In November, Arran heard that an English army was on its way to relieve the Castle and commanded other Fife lairds to support him. John Wemyss of that ilk was ordered to bring his followers and whatever artillery they had to resist a sea-invasion.William Fraser, Memorials of the family of Wemyss, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1888), p. 7, (31 October 1546) Provisions sent for the siege in December by boat from Leith included 60 stones of lead taken from the roof of the Great Hall of Holyroodhouse. When supplies were short the defenders made a new exit to the sea in the east wall. Supplies were obtained from the Laird of Montquhany in Tentsmuir Forest, but Walter Melville and twenty men died because of poor rations and bad fish.
The truce of December 1546 Following requests made in person, Henry VIII made plans to assist the Protestants within the castle. He wrote to Arran from Nonsuch Palace on 20 December 1546, requesting Arran to desist from the siege, and threatening to relieve the lairds.State Papers Henry VIII, vol. 5, part IV part 2 (London, 1836), pp. 572–584. Balnaves, Leslie and William Kirkcaldy were each given £100 by England's Privy Council.J. R. Dasent ed., Acts of the Privy Council (London, 1890), pp. 527, 556. The English Chancellor, Thomas Wriothesley, told Arran's diplomats in London, David Panter and Adam Otterburn, to ask the Regent to desist from the siege. The grounds given were that the Castilians were Henry's friends and well-wishers to the English marriage. Panter and Otterburn refused, as it was not their business, but sent a note of the request to Arran.State Papers Henry VIII, vol. 5 (London, 1836), pp. 575–576, 21 December 1546.
However, a truce or concord was already agreed on 18 December 1546, which Knox described as the 'coloured appointment.' Arran's negotiators were David Lyndsay the Lyon Herald,Carol Edington, Court and Culture in Renaissance Scotland (University of Massachusetts, 1994), p. 63. the Justice Clerk, the Provost of Aberdeen, the Earls of Huntly, Argyll, and Marischal, and Lord Gray, who spoke at the walls of the castle. Those in the castle would wait on the receipt of an absolution from the Pope for the murder, and would then be allowed to surrender on good terms. A meeting of the privy council at St Andrews on 19 December discussed how the castle was not winnable except by famine.Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. 57–8. The agreement was probably cynical on both sides. As a pledge of good faith the Castilians sent two hostages to Arran in December 1546, two younger sons of the Laird of Grange, and a brother of Lord Ruthven, known as the "Ald Person".State Papers Henry VIII, vol. 5 (London, 1836), 578–9, 25 December 1546. On 20 December, the hostages or 'pledges' were taken to Kinghorn.Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 9 (Edinburgh, 1911), xvi, 44, 46. It was later said that Henri Cleutin, a diplomatic adviser to Mary of Guise had counselled Arran that those in the castle should be promised what they asked for, and beheaded when they came out.Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, 1559–1560 (London, 1865), p. 11.
Stalemate An English invasion to support the Castilians never came, but Balnaves secured the services of two Italian military engineers in Henry's service, Guillaume de Rosetti and Archangelo Arcano.Marcus Merriman, The Rough Wooings (East Linton: Tuckwell, 2000), p. 227. After Henry's death on 27 January 1547 his son Edward VI did not send an armed force. The Castilians continued to sue for aid at the English court, and were able to travel in person to England by sea. The Scottish ambassador Adam Otterburn recorded their presence in London. In February, the English admiral Andrew Dudley was ordered to show his fleet near St Andrews Castle to encourage the besieged allies of England.C. S. Knighton, Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Edward VI (London, 1992), p. 8 no. 21.