The Siege of Haddington
After centuries of war between the two countries, the policy of the Tudors was to force a union between England and Scotland. In the 1540s it seemed a golden opportunity had come. With the death of Henry VIII in England and James IV in Scotland, both countries had children on the throne – the sickly Prince Edward in England and the young Mary Stuart in Scotland.
The Earl of Somerset, Lord Protector of England, saw an arranged marriage between the infant sovereigns as the way forward. Initially, the Regent of Scotland, Lord Hamilton Earl of Arran and Mary of Guise the Queen Dowager agreed. But Cardinal Beaton persuaded them otherwise and the Scots nobles convened in Stirling to determine that Mary would be married into the French royal family. In 1548, the Scots Parliament was convened at Haddington and passed the Abbey Declaration, an Act of Parliament confirming the betrothal of Mary to the Dauphin, the heir to the French throne.
Somerset settled on a policy of subduing Scotland by fortifying and garrisoning key locations in the country. Haddington, lying across the main route from the south to the capital was one of his principal targets. “Most men thynk kepyng Haddington, ye wyne Skotland.”
The town was fortified using earth walls on the ultra modern Italian pattern (see “Haddington’s Italian Walls”) under the direction of Sir Thomas Palmer. On April 18th 1548, Sir William Grey entered the town with a garrison of 2000 foot and 500 horse. It was an international force, English soldiers along with German landsknecht troops, Albanians, Spaniards and Italians.
In June 1548, the French commander, Andre de Montalambert, Sieur d’Esse, landed at Leith with 6000 troops and many cannon. It was another international force, Frenchmen alongside Germans, Swiss, Italians and Spaniards. The French force was under orders to evict the English from Scotland. Capturing Haddington was just one of their objectives. It proved the hardest of the nuts they had to crack.
The Scots Army had been roundly defeated the previous year at the battle of Pinkie (near Musselburgh) and Scots forces were not consistent participants in the siege. An irregular, ad hoc force, Scots turned up in groups, fought for a while and then returned home. De Beauge, reporting the siege to France said “Scots never take the field but when forced to arms by necessity…they then seek out the enemy with all expedition and fight with invincible courage. This done, and their victuals being consumed, they break up their camp and retire”. Contingents came from all over Scotland at various times, including men from Orkney armed in Viking style and Highlanders “who go almost naked” and who were terrified by cannon fire.
The siege consisted of prolonged and heavy exchanges of artillery and arquebus fire (see “The Beaten Steeple”) and fierce attempts to enter the town (see “The Camisado”). Elements of the French force were regularly detached for action elsewhere in Scotland and a complete encirclement of the town could not be continuously maintained. So there were occasional opportunities for reinforcements and resupply to be brought into Haddington. And there were sorties by the garrison – some of them disastrous (see “Tuesday’s Chase”).
Despite occasional relief, conditions in the town quickly became terrible – and got worse. Heavy artillery fire destroyed every building: “Our enemies so beat the town with shot that they left not one whole house for our men to put their heads in, whereby they were constrained to lie under the walls”. As provisions ran low, the troops inside the town “were constrained to eat horses, dogs, cats and rats…these extremities made them look more like ugly monsters than human men”.
For the besieging forces the fortifications proved frustratingly strong. The earth walls absorbed shot and breaches could be easily repaired from within, often strengthening the original structure. The design of the fort meant that direct assaults on the walls or attempts to countermine them were very costly in terms of casualties.
Eventually it was a third force that brought the siege to an end. Plague had entered the town and spread rapidly. The garrison was reduced to fewer than 1000 men, probably at least half of them already infected. A relief force of 6000 troops was sent from Berwick under the Earl of Rutland. The French and Scots, without sufficient numbers to attack the relief column, watched as the garrison was escorted out, the fortifications levelled and what remained of Haddington burned to the ground. It was the first day of October 1549.
The Beaten Steeple
St Mary’s church has stood beside the Tyne since 1139. No events in its long life have been as catastrophic as the siege. The church was outwith the town fortifications (see “Haddington’s Italian walls”) but within cannonshot of the defenders’ positions.
The French forces first used the church tower as a firing position for cannon to lob shot into the town. But this was soon abandoned as the return fire smashed through the tower, the church roofs and the supporting vaults. Later the building provided partial cover for troops gathering to assault the walls and continued to have cannon and arquebus shot poured into its walls.
Writing to Somerset in July 1548, Sir Thomas Palmer said: “The walls of the church yet stand and the enemy has shot with cutthrottes into Haddington from the top of the steeple, but the town ordnance made him leave it. The vawltes of the steeple and church were broken, the church uncovered, the pillars cut and underpropped, thinking they might have turned it over when they had list, but they have failed and we think it shall do no hurt, for our ordnance beats through the steeple at every shot.”
After the siege only the nave of the church survived. The tower, transept and choir were left roofless and broken. John Knox called on the Town Council in 1561 to repair the church “frae steeple to the west end”. But it was not until the 1970s that St Mary’s was restored. Even now the tower is still without its steeple. The original steeple was in the Crown style; curving arches rising from each corner of the tower, meeting at the centre point with a spire emerging from the point where the arches meet. The steeple of St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh is an example of the type.
Today, after long years of repair, the walls and buttresses of the church still show the pock marks and holes where arquebus and cannon shot impacted. The marks are most evident on the west elevation near the door as shown in the picture below.
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The cache is nearby but a little away from the church itself.