Siege of St Andrews Castle

Fore Tower of St Andrews Castle

Date	1546–1547
Location	St Andrews, Scotland
Result	Government victory

Belligerents

Government of Scotland
assisted by the

Kingdom of France

Protestant Lairds of Fife
with support from the

Kingdom of England

Commanders and leaders

Regent Arran
Leone Strozzi

Norman Leslie, Master of Rothes
William Kirkcaldy

Casualties and losses

Unknown

The Siege of St Andrews Castle (1546–1547) followed the killing of Cardinal David Beaton by a group of Protestants at St Andrews Castle. They remained in the castle and were besieged by the Governor of Scotland, Regent Arran. However, over 18 months the Scottish besieging forces made little impact, and the Castle finally surrendered to a French naval force after artillery bombardment. The Protestant garrison, including the preacher John Knox were taken to France and used as galley slaves.

St Andrews castle was the residence of Cardinal David Beaton and his mistress Marion Ogilvy. Beaton's strong opposition to the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, with Prince Edward, later Edward VI of England, the son and heir of Henry VIII of England, had led to the war of the Rough Wooing with England.

In 1546, David Beaton imprisoned the Protestant preacher George Wishart in the castle's Sea Tower, then had him burnt at the stake in front of the castle walls on 1 March. Wishart's friends included a group of well-connected Protestant Fife Lairds, some of whom had previously conspired with Henry VIII and his ambassador Ralph Sadler either to capture or assassinate Beaton.

On Saturday 29 May 1546, the lairds formed four teams. Norman Leslie, Master of Rothes, and three men, perhaps by disguising themselves as masons when some building work was in progress, got into the castle. James Melville and his companions got in by pretending to have an appointment with the Cardinal. William Kirkcaldy of Grange and eight men gained entry to the castle at the drawbridge and when they were joined by John Leslie of Parkhill, they overpowered the porter Ambrose Stirling, stabbed him and threw his body in the ditch.

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