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The Battle of Solway Moss took place on Solway Moss near the River Esk on the English side of the Anglo-Scottish Border[3] in November 1542 between forces from England and Scotland.
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When Henry VIII of England broke from the Roman Catholic Church, he asked James V of Scotland, his nephew, to do the same. James ignored his uncle's request and further insulted him by refusing to meet with Henry at York. Furious, Henry VIII sent troops against Scotland. In retaliation for the massive English raid into Scotland, James responded by assigning Robert, Lord Maxwell, the Scottish Warden of West March, the task of raising an army.[4]
On 24 November 1542, an army of 15,000–18,000 Scots advanced south. Maxwell, though never officially designated commander of the force, declared he would lead the attack in person.
The Scots advance was met at Solway Moss by Sir Thomas Wharton and his 3,000 men. Sir William Musgrove, an English commander, reported that Maxwell was still in charge and fought with the rest of the Scottish nobles who dismounted on the bank of the River Esk.[5] A report of Sir George Douglas of Pittendreich and later chronicle accounts say that with the earlier loss of Maxwell, Sir Oliver Sinclair de Pitcairns, James V's favourite, declared himself to be James's chosen commander. Unfortunately, the other commanders refused to accept his command and the command structure disintegrated.[6]
The battle was uncoordinated and is better described as a rout. Sir Thomas Wharton described the battle as the overthrow of the Scots between the rivers Esk and Lyne. The Scots, who were pursued by the English cavalry towards Arthuret Howes, found themselves penned in south of the Esk, on English territory between the river and the Moss, and so surrendered themselves and their 10 field guns to the English cavalry. Wharton said the Scots were halted at Sandyford by Arthuret mill dam.[7] The Scots were 'beguiled by their own guiding', according to one Scottish writer.[8] Several hundred of the Scots may have drowned in the marshes and river.[1]
James, who was not present at the battle (he had remained at Lochmaben), withdrew to Falkland Palace humiliated and ill with fever. He died there two weeks later at the age of thirty. According to George Douglas, in his delirium he lamented the capture of his banner and Oliver Sinclair at Solway Moss more than his other losses.[9] He left behind a six-day-old daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots.
Gervase Phillips has estimated that only about 7 Englishmen and 20 Scots were killed but 1,200 Scottish prisoners were taken,[2] including Sinclair, the Earls of Cassillis, Glencairn and Maxwell.[10] Prisoners taken to England included Lord Gray, and Stewart of Rosyth. A number of captured Scottish earls, lords and lairds were released; they sent hostages, called "pledges" into England in their place.[11] On 14 December 1542, Thomas Wharton's report of the battle was read to Privy Council, and they ordered that Scottish prisoners entering London should wear a red St Andrew's cross. Among the captured guns were four falconets with the cast cipher of 'JRS' for 'Jacobus Rex Scotorum' and the Scottish royal arms with an imperial crown.[12]
Eustace Chapuys reported that the Scottish prisoners attended Henry's court on Christmas Day wearing swords and dirks. They were able to talk to the French ambassador and Henry gave them each a present of a gold chain. These hostages and prisoners were mostly well treated in England, as it was hoped that when they returned to Scotland after their ransoms were paid, they would further the English cause. Some of the high ranking prisoners taken at the battle were exchanged for their 'pledges' at Carlisle on 10 January 1543.[13] Chapuys said the return of some prisoners was prevented at this time by the Scottish government which claimed they were traitors for losing the battle, or suspected they were now being influenced by Henry. As their families were arrested these prisoners could not provide their pledges and stayed on the border at Berwick-upon-Tweed.[14]
However, a modern historian Marcus Merriman sees the battle and hostage-taking more as the culmination of James V's war rather than the beginning of Henry VIII's Rough Wooing. He notes that the capture of so many Scottish nobles at the time of the birth and accession of Mary, Queen of Scots did not affect Henry's policy or the Scottish lords's subsequent rejection of the Treaty of Greenwich in December 1543.[15]
The chief Scottish prisoners were taken to Newcastle upon Tyne, and were listed with their keepers at that time in a schedule prepared by Sir Thomas Wharton;[16] below the keepers of their substitute 'pledges' or hostages are added from a list compiled later in 1543 amongst the papers of the Earl of Shrewsbury.[17]
In March 1544, as the war of Rough Wooing commenced in earnest, Henry VIII sent his Richmond Herald, Gilbert Dethick, to the Privy Council of Scotland at Stirling Castle to demand the return to England of a number of these high-ranking prisoners who had been allowed home on licence. These were; the Earls of Cassilis and Glencairn, Lords Somerville, Maxwell, Gray, Oliphant, and Fleming, with Oliver Sinclair, George Hume of Ayton, Robert Master of Erskine, William Seton, Patrick Hepburn, James Pringle, James Sinclair, Alexander Sinclair, John Maitland of Awencastle, Henry Maxwell brother of lord Maxwell, John Ross of Craigie, the laird of Moncrieff, John Leslie younger son of the earl of Rothes, and John Carmichael. If the council did not organise their return, Henry threatened revenge on their pledges in England, and penalties on future captives.[18]