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Pinkie Cleugh

Battle of Pinkie Cleugh
Part of the Anglo-Scottish Wars
River Esk at Musselburgh
River Esk and Inveresk Church at Musselburgh
Date 10 September 1547
Location Musselburgh, Lothian, Scotland
Result Decisive English victory
Belligerents
Royal Arms of the Kingdom of Scotland.svg Kingdom of Scotland Royal Arms of England (1399-1603).svg Kingdom of England
Commanders and leaders
Arms of the Duke of Abercorn.svgEarl of Arran
Earl of Angus
Arms of Seymour Family.svgDuke of Somerset
Strength
22,000–36,000 16,800+
30 warships
Casualties and losses
6,000–15,000 killed
2,000 prisoners
200–600 killed

The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, sometimes known as the Battle of Pinkie, took place on 10 September 1547 on the banks of the River Esk near Musselburgh, Scotland. The last pitched battle between Scottish and English armies, it was part of the conflict known as the Rough Wooing, and is considered to be the first modern battle in the British Isles. It was a catastrophic defeat for Scotland, where it became known as Black Saturday.

In the last years of his reign, King Henry VIII of England tried to secure an alliance with Scotland by the marriage of the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, to his young son, the future Edward VI. When diplomacy failed, and Scotland was on the point of an alliance with France, he launched a war against Scotland that became known as the Rough Wooing. The war also had a religious aspect; the Scots refused to have Reformation imposed on them by England. During the battle, the Scots taunted the English soldiers as loons (persons of no consequence), tykes and heretics. The Earl of Angus, who is said to have arrived “with [monks] ‘the professors of the Gospel,’ the heavy pikemen of the Lowlands, eight thousand strong,” was in the lead.

When Henry died in 1547, Edward Seymour, maternal uncle of Edward VI, became Lord Protector and Duke of Somerset, with (initially) unchallenged power. He continued the policy of forcible alliance with Scotland by the marriage of Mary to Edward, and of imposing an Anglican Reformation on the Scottish Church. Early in September 1547, he led a well-equipped army into Scotland, supported by a large fleet. The Earl of Arran, Scottish Regent at the time, was forewarned by letters from Adam Otterburn, his representative in London, who had observed English war preparations.


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