Bloody battles, famine and burned palaces: The Siege of Leith ended 459 years ago after 12 years
The presence of Catholic France was no longer welcome by Protestants and the port paid a heavy price as they fought it out
Almost 460 years ago today, the Edinburgh Treaty brought about the end of the Siege of Leith.
What was the Siege of Leith? Essentially French troops, after being invited over 1548, spent 12 years encamped in the port and it brought about the end of the "Auld Alliance" between Scotland and France.
The two nations had been allies since the 13 century, peacefully for the next couple centuries until religious differences started to cause divisions.
Protestant reformers saw the French as a Catholic influence and called on help from England to get them out of Scotland. King James V of Scotland then died, and his then week-old daughter, Mary became Queen of Scots.
An agreement for her to marry Edward Hamilton, son of the Earl of Hamilton, was reneged on and she was instead promised to Francois, Dauphin of France. Mary of Guise would act as Regent until she came of age.
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This led to the "War of the Rough Wooing" (which does sound vaguely sexual). The term was christened by Edinburgh's most famous author, Sir Walter Scott (sorry Ian Rankin).
In May 1544, an English Army landed at Granton and captured Leith in order to launch an artillery assault on Edinburgh Castle. They withdrew after three days, but not before setting fire to Leith and Holyrood Palace.
Three years later they returned and won the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in Musselburgh and were back in Leith by September 154, camping on Leith Links.
They began digging a trench on the south-east side of Leith near the Firth of Forth to make the area defensible. They only stayed five days.
In response to this, Scotland looked to France for help. On 16 June 1648, 8,000 French troops arrived in Leith as the young Queen Mary was sent to France. England couldn't win and most of their troops had left Scotland before 1550.
France established itself in Scotland with increasing numbers of their men concentrated in Haddington.
Work then began on fortifying the Port of Leith with a bulwark (basically a solid wall) built at the Kirkgate.
The French fortifications (Image: Creative Commons)
While all this was going on, the Protestants were becoming increasingly concerned at French (in their eyes Catholic) influence in Scotland, especially since Mary's marriage to Francoise.
They aligned themselves with John Knox and other religious leaders and raised 12,000 troops to try and remove the French from Scotland, proclaiming themselves "Lords of the Congregation".
This set them on a collision course with the numerous French troops in and around Edinburgh, with the two factions struggling for control of the city.
The Articles of Leith were signed to bring about a brief truce, but after more troops arrived from France, this was considered a breach. Queen Elizabeth sent reinforcements form Norfolk to boost the Protestant forces.
They met at Berwick, concluded the Treaty of Berwick recognising the Congregation as the power in Scotland and it was on.
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French troops withdrew from Haddington to the now fortified Leith, swelling the French numbers there to around 3000.
First came the battle of Restalrig in 1560. The French suffered over 100 casualties in trying to secure the high ground at Hawkhill in Lochend.
The next event was a French attack on the English. The French destroying three cannons and putting 600 English to the sword. The war became intense and the very bitter.
The Scots and English now met every attack with an equal force and bloody battles were fought across what was to become Leith Links.
Into this came more English Troops and a really determined attack was made to capture Leith which failed. However by this time famine was starting to affect Leith as the French couldn't supply from the sea as it was being blocked by the ships of the English navy.
Leith came under heavy cannon fire and between that bombardment and famine, many of the port's inhabitants were killed. French troops were reduced to eating horse meat as the siege continued and Leith was being reduced to rubble.
A plaque commemorating the siege (Image: Creative Commons)
The turning point came when Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland, died at Edinburgh Castle and negotiations to end the siege began.
It was stipulated that the French troops would leave Leith and be conveyed back to France on English ships. This brought their 12 years in the port to an end on 16 July 1560. After a brief skirmish on 4 July, peace was signed the following day and proclaimed between the King of France, Queen of England and Mary, Queen of Scots two days later.
Another stipulation however, was that Mary Queen of Scots was to remove the English coat of arms from her shield. She refused, and is what ultimately led to her execution.
Not before she arrived in what was now the ruins of Leith in August 1560. Nothing remains of it now, but it is believed she landed at the foot of Burgess Close.
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