Lion (warship)

Lion was the name of five warships of the Royal Scottish Navy during the 16th century, some of which were prizes captured by, and from the English. The names of these ships reflect the Royal Arms of Scotland and its central motif of the Lion Rampant.

Lion was commanded by brothers Sir Robert Barton and Sir Andrew Barton and captured by the English in 1511. The ship did not belong to the king but was fitted out for warfare by the Barton brothers. She was around 120 tons with a crew of forty, and probably the largest merchant ship used and hired by James IV of Scotland; small in comparison the king's Margaret and Great Michael. Robert Barton took James IV of Scotland to the Isle of May in Lion in September 1506. Andrew Barton took Lion and the small Jennet of Purwyn, (which was a captured Danish ship) close to England in June 1511. He was acting with a royal Letter of Marque, which was a license to plunder Portuguese ships. Both ships were captured by Sir Edward and Sir Thomas Howard and taken to Blackwall. Andrew Barton was killed during their capture.

Robert Barton provided a new larger replacement Lion of 300 tons. The new Lion was victualled at Honfleur on 24 August 1513 with supplies for 260 men. James IV had lent his ships to France in the months before Flodden.

Lion, or Great Lion was commanded by Sir Robert Barton and later by his nephew John Barton. Captured by the English off the Kent coast in March 1547. In the 1530s this ship had been captured from the English navy and passed into the hands of James V of Scotland. The Lion was part of the fleet that James V took to France in 1536 and brought back Madeleine of Valois in 1537. Known as Great Lion, she and Salamander were fitted with 15 large wheeled guns and 10 smaller wheeled guns in May 1540, for the king's voyage to Orkney in June. John Barton sailed to Dieppe with Great Lion and Salamander in June 1541, and had their 27 guns cleaned and the latter ship re-rigged. In December 1542, Mary Willoughby, Salamander and Lion blockaded the London merchant ship Antony of Bruges in a creek on the coast of Brittany near 'Poldavy Haven.'

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