Siege of Leith

Siege of Leith
Map of the Siege of Leith dated 7 May 1560 from Petworth House
Date 1560 Location Leith 55°58′26″N 3°10′19″W / 55.974°N 3.172°W / 55.974; -3.172Coordinates: 55°58′26″N 3°10′19″W / 55.974°N 3.172°W / 55.974; -3.172 Result Called off following the Treaty of Edinburgh
Belligerents
Protestant Scots Kingdom of England	Catholic Scots Kingdom of France
Commanders and leaders
James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault William Grey, 13th Baron Grey de Wilton James Croft William Winter	Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland Monsieur D'Oysel Sebastien de Luxembourg, vicomte de Martigues Jacques de la Brosse
Strength
English total 25 May 1560; 12,466	French soldiers in Leith 28 May 1560; 2,300, others 2,000 French evacuated from Scotland in July 1560; 3,613 men; 267 women; 315 children
Casualties and losses
7 May 1560; English: 800 Scottish: 400	7 May 1560; 15

The Siege of Leith ended a twelve-year encampment of French troops at Leith, the port near Edinburgh, Scotland. The French troops arrived by invitation in 1548 and left in 1560 after an English force arrived to attempt to assist in removing them from Scotland. The town was not taken by force and the French troops finally left peacefully under the terms of a treaty signed by Scotland, England and France.

Scotland and France had long been allies under the "Auld Alliance", first established in the 13th century. However, during the 16th century, divisions appeared between a pro-French faction at Court and Protestant reformers. The Protestants saw the French as a Catholic influence and, when conflict broke out between the two factions, called on English Protestants for assistance in expelling the French from Scotland.

In 1542, King James V of Scotland died, leaving only a week-old daughter who was proclaimed Mary, Queen of Scots.James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, was appointed Regent and agreed to the demand of King Henry VIII of England that the infant Queen should marry his son Edward. This policy was soon reversed, however, through the influence of Mary's mother Mary of Guise and Cardinal Beaton, and Regent Arran rejected the English marriage offer. He then successfully negotiated a marriage between the young Mary and François, Dauphin of France.

The English King Henry VIII, angered by the Scots reneging on the initial agreement, made war on Scotland in 1544–1549, a period which the writer Sir Walter Scott later christened the "Rough Wooing". In May 1544 an English army landed at Granton and captured Leith to land heavy artillery for an assault on Edinburgh Castle, but withdrew after burning the town and the Palace of Holyrood over three days. Three years later, following another English invasion and victory at Pinkie Cleugh in 1547, the English attempted to establish a "pale" within Scotland. Leith was of prime strategic importance because of its vital role as Edinburgh's port, handling its foreign trade and essential supplies. The English arrived in Leith on 11 September 1547 and camped on Leith Links. The military engineer Richard Lee scouted around the town on 12 September looking to see if it could be made defensible. On 14 September the English began digging a trench on the south-east side of Leith near the Firth of Forth. William Patten wrote that the work was done as much for exercise as for defence, since they stayed only five days.

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