Battle of Glasgow (1544)

The Battle of Glasgow was fought on 16 March 1544, between Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox and the Scottish Regent James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, and their adherents, during the minority of Mary, Queen of Scots. There was a second battle at Glasgow Muir in May 1544 between Arran and the Earl of Glencairn.

The Earl of Lennox and William Cunningham, Earl of Glencairn continued to show support for the marriage of Prince Edward to Mary, Queen of Scots after the Parliament of Scotland had rejected this English marriage proposal. The rejection, a breach of the Treaty of Greenwich, resulted in the declaration of war, the war now called the Rough Wooing. Lennox and Glencairn were thus caught offside and technically traitors. Lennox wrote to Mary of Guise on 7 March 1544 hoping to buy time by offering his innocence to be tried before a convention of his peers. He wrote that it was heavily murmured by the Governor and his council;

"that I am the principell man that causis division and braik be in this realme and makis daily insurrectionis and disobeance contrar the authority."

However Arran had already ordered an attack on Glasgow. Artillery and hand guns were sent from Edinburgh Castle.Bothwell Castle was taken first on 8 March. Lennox's men took up position at the Castle and Cathedral, but he himself stayed at his stronghold, Dumbarton Castle.

Arran's forces encountered Lennox's followers at Glasgow Muir (Moor), a mile east of the town. The battle started well for Lennox, his force of about 800 men drove the first rank of more numerous forces of Hamilton back into the second rank and captured their cannon. At this juncture Robert Boyd of Kilmarnock and his friend Mungo Mure of Rowallan, at the head of a small party of horse, who having just arrived at the site of the battle, valiantly thrust themselves "into the midst of the combat", and decided the fate of the day favourably for the Regent Hamilton. There were about 300 slain on both sides. Lennox himself withdrew to Dumbarton Castle. According to an English messenger, Edward Storye, who made a secret journey to Cumbernauld Castle at this time, Arran then took the town of Glasgow and laid siege to the Castle (Bishop's Palace) on Wednesday 26 March.

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Wikipedia