Royal Scots Navy - The Sea War During The Rough Wooing

The Sea War During The Rough Wooing

After the death of James V, a note by Lord Methven apparently from March 1543 describes the tense situation. The Scots were waiting for the arrival of the Earl of Lennox, and he was told to come by the west sea to avoid the English watch. He should round the Isles and sail up the Forth to the Pows of Airth for Stirling. Lennox landed at Dumbarton in April. In October 1543, Ralph Sadler the English Commissioner for the Treaty of Greenwich in Scotland, heard that John Barton planned to sail to Bordeaux in the Mary Willoughby with nine other ships, half merchant vessels and half men of war, Sadler advised an English blockade that would beggar Edinburgh.

As the first major action of the war of the Rough Wooings, Edinburgh was attacked by an English marine force and burnt. The Salamander and the Scottish-built Unicorn were captured at Leith and used as transport for the return journey of a part of Lord Hertford's army on 14 May 1544, with ballast of 80,000 Scottish iron cannon-shot.

A large ship with 80 men captained by Robert Sandes was deployed to blockade St Andrews Castle in December 1546, held by the Fife lairds who had killed David Beaton. Lead for bullets was obtained by stripping the roof of the hall of Holyroodhouse. After the death of Henry VIII, the Emperor's agent in Paris heard in March 1547 that the Scots were determined on doing their worst at sea against the English, so giving them no cause to show them favour.

The Great Lion was captured off Dover on 14 March 1547 by Sir Andrew Dudley, brother of the Duke of Northumberland who gave her a broadside from the Pauncey. The Mary Willoughby and the Great Spaniard were blockading Dieppe and Le Havre in April 1547 when the Mary Willoughby was recaptured by Lord Hertford.

In March 1547 the French painter Nicholas, Nicholas de Nicolay, seigneur d'Arfeville, passed plans of English harbours to the French, and obtained a copy of Rutter in England, which helped the French fleet's missions at St Andrews Castle and to circumnavigate Scotland to Dumbarton to collect Mary, Queen of Scots. Nicholas reported the taking by force-of-arms of the Great Lion, the Lionesse, and the Marie Galante on 7 March 1547 to Odet de Selve. In May 1547, a Scottish ship with 80 men captained by a Lord, with all kinds of munition arrived at Holy-Haven near Lübeck.

The Salamander listed as 300 tons with 220 men, and the Lion at 160 tons with 100 men, returned to Scotland in Edward Clinton's invasion fleet of August 1547. William Patten believed that the Mary Willoughby, the Bosse and another captured English tall-ship, the Anthony of Newcastle, were captured on the Forth near Blackness Castle by Edward Clinton on 15 September 1547. Patten said that Clinton burnt seven other ships at Blackness and six more old vessels at Leith. Early in October 1547, the Earl of Angus tried to recapture the island of Inchcolm from the English with five ships. With Mary, Queen of Scots in France, the Emperor was concerned to hear of French ships acting against the English in the North Sea and flying Scottish colours. He feared these French ships would pretend to be Scottish pirates and attack his subjects, increasing international tension.

At the height of this Anglo-Scottish war in 1549, a Scottish book was published, The Complaynt of Scotland, which described the preparation of a Scottish warship for battle. The author gives the master's orders, the chants made by the sailors to keep time, and the names of the guns with onomatopoeic attempts to render the different sounds they made. In the book, this passage is quickly followed by an explanation of celestial navigation and astrology supplied by a shepherd.

When Mary of Guise sent Sir Hew Kennedy of Girvanmains to support his stepson the Earl of Sutherland against the Mackays she hired a private ship. George Hume's Lion of 85 tons was hired in August 1554 to attack the House of Burro in Strathnaver. It cost £63 Scots per month, with £60 for its crew of 20. Fifty French troops and the royal gunner Hans Cochrane embarked. After a brief siege, the captain of the Castle was hung and the chief of the Mackays brought into captivity.