Anglo-Scottish Wars

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A 14th century illustration depicts an English herald going to meet Scottish soldiers.

The Anglo-Scottish Wars , also known as the Anglo-Scottish Border Wars , were a series of clashes between the kingdoms of England and Scotland . This term covers all armed conflicts that took place from the end of the Scottish Wars of Independence in 1357 to the unification of the two kingdoms through the enthronement of the Scottish King James VI. when James I, King of England, Ireland and Scotland took place in 1603.

A significant number of conflicts were resolved during this period. In most cases, one of the two nations tried to take advantage of military weakness or temporary political instability on the other side. However, this period should not be viewed as a permanent state of war. Often the short campaigns, each lasting only one or two years, were carried out without a previous declaration of war; after the decisive battle years or even decades of relative calm could pass.

Border wars

Border between 1237 and 1552

The border between Scotland and England was already established with the Treaty of York in 1237. Scotland renounced u. a. on its territorial claims to Northumberland south of the Tweed. Only a small area around Berwick-upon-Tweed was excluded from this contractual arrangement .

This treaty was never terminated or corrected in the following years, and both nations permanently adhered to the definition of the border. Nevertheless, the English regions of Cumberland and Northumberland were repeatedly contested:

Wars of the Roses

During the Wars of the Roses , the struggle of the English noble houses York and Lancaster between 1455 and 1485 for the succession to the throne, things became relatively quiet on the Anglo-Scottish border. There were two main reasons for this: On the one hand, there were so many English men under arms at this time that every Scottish attack could have been sent against a much superior army in a very short time. On the other hand, Scottish troops, on one side or the other, were themselves involved in the fighting as supporters:

On August 3, 1460, the Scottish King James II died during the siege of Roxburgh Castle , the last castle held by England after the Scottish Wars of Independence. A cannon exploded nearby.

In 1461 Heinrich VI. officially transferred the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed to Scotland to show their appreciation for the support of the House of Lancaster in the Wars of the Roses.

In October 1462, Margaret of Anjou , wife and queen of King Henry VI, who was deposed at the time , conquered the castles of Bamburgh and Alnwick Castle , which belong to the House of York, after a long siege. She was supported by larger contingents of French and Scottish troops. In January of the following year she is besieged by Richard Neville in Alnwick Castle. Their Scottish reinforcements had withdrawn after various insults (and ongoing peace negotiations with House York). Defeated House Lancaster troops flee to Scotland in April after the Battle of Hexham .

A Scottish invading army withdrew without a fight from the Norham-on-Tweed region in the summer of 1464 after strong English formations under the command of John and Richard Neville had rushed to Northumberland in forced marches. The aim of the invasion was to support the House of Lancaster in the south of England. The Scottish King James III. was thirteen at the time.

In 1482 Richard III conquered . the city of Berwick-upon-Tweed for England.

There was a belated episode of the Wars of the Roses in 1496. The pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck pretends to be Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, younger son of Edward IV, and ends up in southern England. King James III sends troops in support. His soldiers destroy Twizel Castle in Northumberland. But there was no further action after Warbeck's attempt at an invasion failed.

Flodden campaign

England under Henry VIII belonged to the Holy League from November 1511 . This alliance had been initiated by Pope Julius II and was directed against the expansion policy of Louis XII. from France.

Scotland was not directly involved in this dispute, but was an old ally of France within the Auld Alliance . When the Holy League declared war on France in 1512, Scotland fulfilled its obligations under that treaty.

Although he was married to Margaret , the older sister of Henry VIII , James IV of Scotland marched into England at the head of his troops in the spring of 1513. After initial success, an English army led by Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk , rushed to meet him . On September 9, 1513, the Battle of Flodden Field took place , in which the Duke of Norfolk proved to be the better strategist. For Scotland this battle was a disaster, Jacob IV died in battle with 10,000 of his soldiers.

1514-1541

After the defeat of the Scots at Flodden, there was a temporary calm on the border between the two countries. Local outlaws, the Border Reivers , have been hired to assault both sides of the border. However, the support was always discontinued when these actions fell back on the initiator.

Only after 1533 did the climate between the two nations deteriorate again, but initially without any military escalation.

Solway Moss campaign

In order to allow a divorce from Catherine of Aragón , Henry VIII carried out a complete break with the Roman Catholic Church . On November 3, 1534, he enforced the Act of Supremacy in Parliament , whereby the king was recognized as "the highest head of the Church of England on earth". Henry VIII then asked his nephew Jacob V to do the same.

Jakob not only ignored his uncle's request, he also snubbed him. So he refused to attend a scheduled meeting in York. To strengthen the Auld Alliance with France, Jacob V married Madeleine of France , a daughter of Francis I of France , in 1537 ; after her sudden death in the same year, he married Maria von Guise in 1538 .

Although Margaret Tudor , the mother of Jacob V and older sister of Henry VIII, tried again and again to mediate, the tension between the two countries continued to grow and culminated in a declaration of war after Margaret's death in 1541. After a few border skirmishes, the two armies clashed at the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542 , which ended catastrophically for the outnumbered Scottish troops due to leadership problems.

The Rough Wooing

Jacob V died shortly after the Battle of Solway Moss and left a six-day-old heir to the throne, Maria . As a result of the tug-of-war for power, Scotland fell into a civil war-like state, which was exploited by English troops. The conflict later named by Walter Scott Rough Wooing followed the declaration of war by Henry VIII, who wanted to force Scotland to agree to a marriage between his son Edward and Maria.

  • Between May 3 and May 7, 1544, an English troop supported by ships looted and pillaged the greater Edinburgh area. Only the artillery from Edinburgh Castle drove away the intruders, who made no move to siege.
  • On February 27, 1545, the Battle of Ancrum Moor came with a clear Scottish victory over an English army twice as strong. This was preceded by several months in which both parties marched on both sides of the border.
  • The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh on September 10, 1547 was the last battle fought between England and Scotland. It proceeded under the opposite sign: the Scottish army, twice as strong, was crushed by the English artillery. As a result of this battle, Maria was secretly brought to France.
  • As a result of the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, English troops had taken the Royal Burgh Haddington . There they were surrounded by Scottish and French troops on February 23, 1548. The siege ended on September 19, 1549 with the withdrawal of the English.
  • Also as a result of the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, Broughty Castle was also in English hands. The troops stationed there were able to withstand the reconquest by Scotland until February 12, 1550.

The Reformation in Scotland

Map of Leith with the fortifications from 1560

In contrast to other European countries, the Reformation was remarkably peaceful. A counter-reformation, such as that attempted in neighboring England by Queen Maria I , did not take place either.

The only conflict at that time was the siege of Leith in 1560. Maria von Guise , Queen Mother and supporter of the Catholic faction, had received military support from France. The approximately 3,000 French soldiers were stationed in Leith and were forcibly expelled (and with the support of a fleet of Queen Elizabeth I ) after the Protestant side took power .

Towards the end of the 16th century it became foreseeable that Elizabeth I would have no heir to the throne and thus Jacob VI. of Scotland would become the next King of England. In order to avoid controversy, attacks by the Border Reivers called outlaws on the border were ignored militarily by both sides.

literature

  • Keith Dockray: Henry VI, Margaret of Anjou and the Wars of the Roses. A source book . Sutton Books, Stroud 2000, ISBN 0-7509-2163-3 .
  • R. Ernest Dupuy , Trevor N. Dupuy : The encyclopedia of military history: from 3500 BC to the present . Harper & Row, New York 1970.
  • Keith Durham, Angus McBride: The Border Reivers: The story of the Anglo-Scottish borderlands . Osprey Publishing, 1995, ISBN 1-85532-417-2 .
  • Michael Lynch : Edinburgh and the Reformation . Gregg, Aldershot, Hampshire 1993.
  • George MacDonald Fraser: The Steel Bonnets: The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers . Harper Collins, New York 1971, ISBN 0-00-272746-3 .
  • RL Mackie: A Short History of Scotland . University Press, Oxford 1952. (Reprinted by Textbook Publishers, 2003, ISBN 0-7581-6205-7 )
  • Mari Perry: Sisters to the King. The tumultuous lives of Henry VIII's sisters. Margaret of Scotland and Mary of France . André Deutsch, London 2002, ISBN 0-233-00208-1 .
  • John Sadler: Border Fury: England and Scotland at War, 1296-1568 . Pearson, London 2005, ISBN 0-582-77293-1 .
  • Charles Truman Wyckoff: Feudal Relations Between the Kings of England and Scotland Under the Early Plantagenets . University of Chicago Press, 1897. (Reprinted 2010)

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The Reign of Alexander II. In: CT Wyckoff: Feudal Relations Between the Kings ... 1897, pp. 120 ff.
  2. ↑ Joseph Robertson: Concilia Scotiae: Ecclesiae Scoticanae Statuta Tam Quam Provincilia Synodalia Quae Super Sunt, MCCXXV-MDLIX. . The Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh 1866, p. Lvi. (Reprint 2011)
  3. ^ List compiled from Sadler, 2006 .
  4. ^ G. Ridpath: The Border History of England and Scotland . London 1776, pp. 347f.
  5. ^ Peter Armstrong: Otterburn 1388: Bloody border conflict. Osprey Publishing, 2006.
  6. ↑ Elizabeth Bonner: Scotland's "auld alliance" with France, 1295-1560 . In: History. 273, 1999, pp. 5-31.
  7. ^ K. Durham, A. McBride: The Border Reivers. 1995, p. 13 f.
  8. ^ Text of the Act of Supremacy
  9. ^ M. Perry: Sisters to the King. 2002, p. 277 ff.
  10. ↑ James V Stewart, King of Scotland on thepeerage.com , accessed July 21, 2015.
  11. ^ Mary Stewart, Queen of Scotland, on thepeerage.com , accessed July 21, 2015.
  12. ^ Michael Lynch : Edinburgh and the Reformation. 1993, p. 69.
  13. ^ Charles Knight: The Popular History of England. Volume 3: An Illustrated History of Society and Government from Earliet Period to Our Own Times . Bradbury and Evans, 1857, p. 120.