Battle of Ancrum Moor

Battle of Ancrum Moor
Part of Anglo-Scottish Wars
Date 27 February 1545 Location Four miles northwest of Jedburgh, Scotland Result Decisive Scottish victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Scotland	Kingdom of England
Commanders and leaders
James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus	Sir Ralph Eure Sir Brian Layton †
Strength
approx 2,500	3,000 mercenary Reiters 1,500 English Border Reivers 700 Scots Border Reivers
Casualties and losses
2	800 killed 1,000 prisoners

3,000 mercenary Reiters
1,500 English Border Reivers

The Battle of Ancrum Moor was fought during the War of the Rough Wooing in 1545. The Scottish victory put a temporary end to English depredations in the Scottish border and lowlands. The battlefield has been included in the Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland and protected by Historic Scotland under the Historic Environment (Amendment) Act 2011.

As his reign drew to a close, King Henry VIII sought to secure the alliance of Scotland and the marriage of the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, to his son Edward. He had the support of some Scots nobles who had been taken prisoner at the Battle of Solway Moss and mixed diplomacy with the threat of force, but in December 1543, the Scottish Parliament, after much internal dissension, decided to reject Henry's overtures and instead renew the alliance with France.

Henry's reaction was to declare war against Scotland. This attempt to cajole Scotland into alliance was another episode in England's long history of antagonism with her northern neighbour. Henry VIII desired a diplomatic marriage that would neutralise the effects of Scotland's own international relations on his borders. The war was later called the "Rough Wooing".

Henry ordered the Earl of Hertford to devastate Edinburgh, Leith and many other towns. Hertford dutifully laid waste to much of southern Scotland in two expeditions in 1544, burning Edinburgh in May

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