Medieval Luffness: Part Two
The Rough Wooing
Let
us start this section with a 'Rough Guide' to Rough Wooing.
James
V was succeed in 1542 by his infant daughter, Mary (1542-67). Henry
VIII of England sought, the marriage of Mary to his young son, who
later become Edward VI. Edward was the last Tudor child and his
marriage to Mary would secure the Scottish crown and isolate the
French from alliance with Scotland. This marriage would also stop a
Catholic Stewart claim on the English throne if the Tudor line was to
die out. It was agreed in
the treatise of Greenwich in July 1543i
that Mary would be betrothed before she was 10 and thereafter brought
up in England. The Scottish Parliament in December 1543 rejected this
and.
Henry resorted to military pressure. He began a series of bloody
raids into Scotland, which became known as the 'Rough Wooing'. These
only drove the Scots into a closer alliance with France. Henry VIII
died in January 1547 and was succeeded by his son Edward VI. Edward
was still a young boy and therefore his uncle Edward Seymour, 1st
duke of Somerset(c. 1500–52) was made Lord Protector of England
during the the King's minority.
Somerset
pursued the claim that Mary would marry Edward and this pursuit of
alliance saw the English and Scottish armies meeting at the Battle of
Pinkie Cleugh on September 10th
1547. Somerset led the English to victory in the last major battle
between England and Scotland. This was the first time in Britain that
gunpowder weapons proved decisive in the outcome of a battle; it was
also the first time that artillery, infantry, cavalry and naval
support had combined in an actionii.
Haddington
The
English could not consolidate their victory at Pinkie and retreated.
However, in the spring of 1548 they returned to Scotland with an army
under Lord Grey of Wilton, Governor of Berwick. The English seized
strong points in southern Scotland and began a very expensive scheme
of building fortifications through out the south from which they
could control the area. As part of this tactic they took the
strategic town of Haddington and immediately fortified it.
We
should remember that this would have been a horrific period of time
to live in the south of Scotland with the English and assured Scots
terrorising the area. Evidence of this campaign of intimidation can
be found in the letters that were sent between Grey of Wilton and
Somerset. At this time it was thought that the French invasion was
imminent and Grey of Wilton was destroying any place that could prove
useful to them; as he reported to Somerset on June 4th
1548 iii:
'....minding this night to destroy some places which might serve the Frenchmen on their coming...'iv.
On
the 9th
Grey wrote to Somerset to report the destruction that was being
carried out along the coast from Musselburgh:
'As we left Muskulborough unburnt when Dalkeith was taken, I sent thither Francis Aslaby on the 7th, who burned the town and mills, and all the fisher villages near the sea, leaving untouched only the church upon the hill, driving also many beasts, to the utter ruin of that country'v.
It
was probably at this time that Luffness castle was slighted.
Aberlady:
The Port of Haddington
At
this point the English were able to resupply the fort at Haddington
from the port at Aberlady. Thomas Fisher the Secretary to Somerset
gave instructions for the English ships in the Firth of Forth to
intercept ships in the Firth of Forth and to bring food or provisions
to the port at Aberladyvi.
This was obviously happening as Grey of Wilton reported to Somerset
that they were:
'...bringing victuals from Aberlady, biscuits and faggots on horseback..'vii.
Therefore
if the English were able to resupply from Aberlady then it must have
meant that Luffness castle was either in their possession and
protecting their landings or that it had already been put out of
action and could form no threat to them. I think the latter is
probably the case. However, Luffness castle was soon to see a new
period of occupation and building work but this time it would be by
the French.
The
French and fort building
The
Scots turned to their old ally France to counteract the English
aggression. The French king, Henri II, demanded various strongholds
including Dunbar, in return for sending troops. This was agreed at
the Treaty of Haddington in 1548. It was agreed that the infant Mary
would be sent to France to marry the Dauphin. Up to 10 000 French
troops landed at Leith and a garrison of French took over Dunbarviii.
Central
to the French military campaign was the strengthening of existining
Scottish strongholds and the construction of new ones in an attempt
to counteract the effects of Somerset's own fort building policy. The
French knew the significance of controling Aberlady Bay and how it
could be used to land their ordnance or to hinder supplies to the
English at Haddingtonix.
They set about fortifying and modernising existing strongholds at
Leith, Millhaven, Inchgarvie and the castles at Blackness and
Stirling, while constructing new ones at Inveresk, Inchkeith, and
Luffnessx.
The French commander de Thermes was sent to
Luffness castle in 1549 to built fortificationsxi.
When
the Franco-Scottish force arrived in Haddington in June 1548 and
assembled batteries around the town the English in the fort now faced
being besieged. They fought on but were in hostile territory and
found it more difficult to resupply the fort. This was partly due to
the seige and partly due to what was happening in England and France.
War in France and Scotland was draining the finances of England and a
rebellion closer to home meant that Somerset the victor of the Battle
of Pinkie was removed from his position as Protector; he would
eventually be executed. The fort at Haddington held out until
September 1549 but with increasing disease and starvation it had to
be abandonedxii.
The
treaty of Boulogne in 1550 finally saw England and France make peace.
The French also insisted that England would cease hostilities in
Scotland. The terms for peace between Scotland and England were
concluded in the Treaty of Norham in 1551, where England agreed to
abandon it's position in Scotlandxiii.
Treaty
The
treaties of Boulogne and Norham made England give up her strongholds
in Scotland. Now that peace reigned in Scotland (although under a
French Kings authority) Henri of France sought to reduce his
expenditurexiv.
As
part of the cost saving exercise the Privy Council of Scotland
proposed that certain forts be demolished Luffness being one of them:
'With a view to “sparing the King's expense in tyme of pece”, the Privy Council proposed that the forts at Inchcolm, Inchgarvie, Broughty(Balgillo), Montrose and Luffness (Aberlady) also be demolished.'xv.
I
think it is important that there is no confusion between the term
'castle' and 'fort' so that we do not infer that the Privy Council is
suggesting that Luffness castle be demolished. I believe at this
point in time it already was in a reduced state. I take the opinion
that when they say 'fort' they mean the defensive structures that had
been built or strengthened in the recent years. Take for example the
other two forts then are mentioned here; Montrose and Broughty. Both
of these had castles but Montrose was in ruins in 1488xvi
and Broughty didn't fall into decay until the 17th
centuryxvii,
so they could not be meaning the castles but the forts that had been
built near or around them.
Thus
the fort at Luffness was proably removed at this time as part of a
cost saving exercise.
Some
detail of this can be found in a historical report on Aberlady in
which the author describes the end of the fort thus:
'In 1552 was ordained by the council that “the said fort of Aberlady [was] to be randerit and deliverit to Patrik Hepburne of Wauchtoun” so that it could be destroyed. The houses and mansion were not to be pulled down, and were instead to remain in Hepburn’s hands in the same manner as his forbears had held the same. Hepburn was charged with delivering the artillery and munitions which were in the fort to Dunbar.'xviii.
Conclusion
I
have laid out a story of the medieval castle of Luffness from the
begining to it's destruction in the 16th century. This I
beleive occurred at some point between 1547 and the 1550s. As a
medieval castle it had survived through the main castle building
period but it was now a technology which was being surpassed by
greater fire power and a new European approach to fort building.
Patrick
Hepburn built the present tower house in the late 16th century to
reflect the change in circumstances and and fashion in archietecturexix
xx.
References
i
The Oxford Companion to British History (1 rev ed.), John Cannon
Publisher:Oxford University Press. Published to Oxford Reference:
2009. Current Online Version:2009 eISBN: 97801995676
ii
Inventory of Historic Battlefields
http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/battleofpinkie.pdf
iii
The following letters can be found at: Edward VI: June 1548,
Calendar of State Papers, Scotland: volume 1: 1547-63, Joseph Bain
(editor), in British History Online,
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43992&strquery=Haddington
(accessed 17 June 2013).
iv
236. Grey of Wilton to Somerset. [June 4. 1548.]
v240.
Grey of Wilton to Somerset. [June 9. 1548.]
vi262.
Memorial for Thomas Fisher. [June 27. 1548.]
vii
251. Grey of Wilton to Somerset. [June 19.]
viii
Castle Park, Dunbar: Two Thousand Years On A Fortified Headland,
David Perry. Society of Antiquaries Of Scotland Monograph series:
Number 16. ISBN 0 903903 14 8. Page 13.
ix
267. Grey of Wilton to Somerset. [June 30. 1548.]
x
Mary of Guise in Scotland, 1548 – 1560: A Political Career, Pamela
E. Ritchie, 2002, ISBN: 1 86232 184 1. Page 27.
xi
http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/55031/details/luffness+house/
xii
Mary of Guise in Scotland, 1548 – 1560: A Political Career, Pamela
E. Ritchie, 2002, ISBN: 1 86232 184 1. Page 28.
xiii
Mary of Guise in Scotland, 1548 – 1560: A Political Career,
Pamela E. Ritchie, 2002, ISBN: 1 86232 184 1. Page 59.
xiv
Potter
(1984). II Documents concerning the Negotiation of the Anglo-French
Treaty of March 1550. Camden Fourth Series, 29, pp 58-180.
doi:10.1017/S0068690500001392.
xv
Register
of The Privy Council, I, pp. 90, 119
Quoted
in Mary Of Guise in Scotland, 1548-1560, Pamela Ritchie, 2002,: page
39.
ISBN
1 86232 184 1
xvi
http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/36242/details/montrose+fort+hill/
xvii
http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/33391/details/dundee+broughty+ferry+broughty+castle/
xviii
Historical report on Aberlady, Prepared by History Tomorrow
(University of Stirling) for CFA Archaeology Ltd
xix
http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/55029/details/luffness+house/
xx
http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/sc-6551-luffness-house-with-east-wing-stables-and-
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