The Marian civil war in Scotland (1568–1573) was a period of conflict which followed the abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her escape from Lochleven Castle in May 1568. Those who ruled in the name of her infant son James VI fought against the supporters of the Queen, who was exiled in England. Edinburgh Castle, which was garrisoned in her name, became the focus of the conflict and surrendered only after an English intervention in May 1573. The conflict in 1570 was called an "internecine war in the bowels of this commonwealth",Register Privy Council of Scotland, Addenda, vol. 14, p. 50 and the period was called soon after an "internecine war driven by questions against authority."Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 361 no. 437, an English comment of 1579 referring 1568–1573: Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1982), pp. vi, 274 no. 1674, Latin phrase "tempore ultimi intestini belli nostro in regno concitani per questionem tunc contra nostram authoritatem commotam", referring to May 1571.
Queen's men and King's men The supporters of Queen Mary had popular international support for what was seen as the legitimate cause of supporters of an unjustly deposed monarch. The King's party claimed that their cause was a war of religion, like that in France, and that they were fighting for the Protestant cause. Mary had escaped from her imprisonment in Lochleven Castle to join her main supporters in the west of Scotland, but they were defeated at the Battle of Langside by her half-brother James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray. Mary fled to England and was imprisoned there by Queen Elizabeth I.
The Earl of Moray was Regent of Scotland and ruled with a council of regency. Mary had depended on the support of the Hamilton family at Langside, and existing rivalries with Hamiltons partly determined who came to join her side. Other supporters of the Queen objected to Moray as a ruler.Lynch, Michael, Scotland, A New History (Pimlico, 1991), pp. 221–222.
Regent Moray marches west and north Moray moved against the supporters of Queen Mary in their south-west power base with a military expedition in June 1568 called the 'Raid of Dumfries' or 'Raid of Hoddom.' The Regent's army with the royal artillery marched to Biggar, where his allies were commanded to muster on 10 June, and on to Dumfries. Biggar was the home area of Lord Fleming who had declared on behalf of Mary. The King's army was protected by a scouting party led by Alexander Hume of Manderston, the vanguard was commanded by the Earl of Morton and Lord Hume. Behind was the "carriage", namely the artillery train, followed by Moray himself. The Laird of Cessford followed, and the army was flanked by the scouting parties of the lairds of the Merse and Buccleuch.
Along the way Moray captured castles belonging to Mary's supporters, including Lord Fleming's castle of Boghall, as well as Skirling Castle, Crawford Castle, Sanquhar Castle, Kenmure Castle, and Hoddom Castle, where the cannon were deployed, and Annan where he rendezvoused with Lord Scrope, the Captain of Carlisle Castle, to discuss border matters. Scrope estimated the Regent's army at 6,000 men. He then returned to Carlisle where he saw Queen Mary's servants play football on 14 June. Moray then took Lochmaben Castle, which the Laird of Drumlanrig was left to hold, and then captured Lochwood and Lochhouse before returning to Edinburgh via Peebles. At Dumfries, a number of Lord Maxwell's supporters surrendered.Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), pp. 128–134: Holinshed, Raphael, Chronicles: Scotland, vol. 5 (London, 1808), p. 634: Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1827), pp. 23–29 Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), nos. 700, 703, 716, 717. Moray was responsible for the destruction of Rutherglen castle, which he burned to the ground in 1569 in retribution against the Hamiltons for having supported Mary at Langside.
In June 1569 Moray went north to Brechin where he accepted hostages sent by the Earl of Huntly, then on to Aberdeen where he held talks with Huntly himself. At Inverness, on 4 June 1569, Moray met the Highland and island chiefs along with the Earls of Caithness and Sutherland and Lord Lovat. His secretary, John Wood, said that "such a power had seldom been seen there"; Moray wrote that "the journey is to put down troubles in the north."Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 652 no. 1072, 653 no. 1075.
Regent Moray was assassinated at by Linlithgow on 23 January 1570 by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh. Wood was killed while travelling in Fife in April 1570. For a time tensions were increased and the position of the Queen's party improved. Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie wrote of this period of conflict "there was nothing but all this realm was divided and rode all in jacks and spears, for the most part of the realm took the queen's part and a few number the kings".Tricia A. McElroy, "The Uses of Genre and Gender in the 'The Dialogue of the Twa Wyfeis'", Joanna Martin and Emily Wingfield, Premodern Scotland: Literature and Governance (Oxford, 2017), p. 199: Aeneas Mackay, The Historie and Cronicles of Scotland, 2 (Edinburgh: STS, 1899), p. 225 (modernised spelling here).Jane Dawson, "A Fife 'Murder Mystery'", Gender in Scotland, 1200–1800, Place, Faith and Politics (Edinburgh University Press, 2024), pp. 13–30.
Queen's men at Dumbarton The supporters of the exiled Queen were in possession of Dumbarton Castle, a fortress and port that commanded the Clyde. The castle was held for Mary by Lord Fleming, helped by other "Queen's men" including his relation, the Captain of Biggar, and Lord Sempill, who stocked the castle with provisions from the surrounding countryside. It was rumoured that armed support for Mary would land there; in December 1569, William Drury, Marshall of Berwick, heard that the Spanish Duke of Alva was sending troops there from Flanders. The Regent Moray declared that he would explore all means to take the Castle and would have taken it in May 1569, if he had then the opportunity to take his army west;"Towards Dumbarton, I leif na moyen unsocht to obteyn it, and doubt not, befoir May to have had the same, gif I mycht have reparit to the west countrie my selff."Calendar State Papers Scotland vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1903), pp. 21, 27, 28.
The Spanish troops did not materialise, but the "King's men" did not take Dumbarton Castle until April 1571. George Buchanan, a contemporary historian and polemicist for the King's party gave an account of the fall of Dumbarton. According to his account, a soldier of the garrison deserted after Lord Fleming had had his wife whipped as a thief. The deserter met Robert Douglas, a relation of the Regent Lennox, and John Cunningham of Drumquhassle and discussed with them ways of capturing the castle. The deserter promised to take the castle with a small band of soldiers. The chronicle Historie of King James the Saxt tells this part of the story differently, having Douglas and Drumquhassle setting out to recruit the former member of the garrison whose name was Robesoun.Thomas Thomson, Historie of King James Saxt (Edinburgh, 1825), pp. 69–70.
The Privy Council of the Regent adopted the plan for a small-scale assault, to be led by Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill, and set the date for this as 1 April. Crawford only informed his men of their objective the night before the attack, at Dumbuck Hill, a mile from Dumbarton.
Crawford marched on the castle before daybreak, first encountering the obstacle of a broken bridge and a scare caused by the sight of a will-o'-the-wisp. While they were helped by the mist, their scaling ladders proved unwieldy. When all was going well, one of the soldiers froze on the ladder and had to be tied to it so the others could pass. At the top of the hill Alexander Ramsay was first over the inner wall. Three garrison sentinels spotted him and his two companions and pelted them with rocks, but Alexander killed them. Behind Alexander, the old wall collapsed, allowing the rest of the King's men to enter. According to Buchanan, they shouted "A Darnley, A Darnley," and the garrison scattered. Lord Fleming escaped, but John Fleming, Captain of Boghall (or Biggar), John Hamilton, Archbishop of St Andrews, Verac a French diplomat who had arrived with munitions, Alexander Master of Livingstone, and an Englishman named Johnson were captured. The Regent Lennox came to view the castle. Verac and the Englishmen were released, Fleming of Boghall was imprisoned, and the Archbishop was taken to Stirling and hanged.James Aikman, George Buchanan's History of Scotland, vol. 2 (Blackie, Glasgow, 1827), pp. 592–599: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1903), p. 552, 'lewd subject named Johnson taken at Dumbarton.'
In September 1571, cannon from Dumbarton were taken to Edinburgh to use against the Queen's men who had built a barricade across the High Street and were holding Edinburgh Castle on behalf of the deposed Queen.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1903), p. 707
War comes to Edinburgh
Edinburgh Castle was initially delivered by its captain, James Balfour, to the Regent Moray, who appointed Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange as its Keeper. Grange was a trusted lieutenant of the Regent, but after Moray's murder in January 1570 his allegiance to the King's cause wavered. After the capture of Dumbarton Castle by the King's men in April 1571, Grange changed sides, occupying the castle and town for Queen Mary against the new Regent, the Earl of Lennox. There now followed what became known as the "Lang Siege", from the Scots word for "long".Harry Potter, Edinburgh Under Siege 1571–1573 (Tempus, 2003), p. 56.
On 2 March 1571, William Kirkcaldy organised a military exercise, with some of his troops pretending to be an English army attacking Edinburgh Castle.John Graham Dalyell, Journal of the Transactions in Scotland, by Richard Bannatyne (Edinburgh, 1806), pp. 98–99. Hostilities began at the end of April, after Grange arrested the Provost of Edinburgh, James MacGill of Nether Rankeillour. The period is sometimes called the "War between Leith and Edinburgh" because the Earl of Morton and the King's army based themselves in Leith.Michael Lynch, Edinburgh and Reformation (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1981), pp. 125–152.
On 22 April two Marian supporters, Arthur Hamilton of Merrynton and Alexander Baillie of Lamington, captured the king's tailor James Inglis near St Cuthbert's Church. He was returning from Stirling Castle, where he had been fitting the king's clothes. Inglis was released two days later after the Deacon of Crafts had spoken with Kirkcaldy. Kirkcaldy now began to strengthen the castle defences and work began on the spur fortification.Memoriales of Transactions in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1836), pp. 111–112.
The first clash of arms came in May 1571 with a chance encounter at the "Lousie-Law", a hill on the Burgh Muir within sight of Edinburgh Castle. This was followed by a month-long siege of the town of Edinburgh by the King's party, and a short second siege in October. On 13 May, the King's men built a small artillery redoubt for three cannon on the "Dow Craig" of the Calton Hill above Trinity College Kirk, which was attacked the same night.Thomas Thomson, Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 213. The King's party gathered in the Canongate in a meeting known as the "creeping parliament", from their attempts to assemble inconspicuously, on 14–16 May, while Mary's supporters met in the tolbooth.Lynch (1981), p. 131. The blockade of the castle and skirmishing continued. On 2 June 1571 soldiers from the Edinburgh castle were in the grounds of Craigmillar Castle. Captain Melville was fatally injured when a barrel of gunpowder exploded.Robert Pitcairn, Memorials of the transactions in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1836), pp. 175–178