Battle of Melrose | |||||||
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Part of the Scottish clan wars | |||||||
The "Turn Again Stone" is believed to have been erected after the Battle of Melrose in 1526 and marks the spot where one of the Eliotts turned to spear his pursuer, Kerr of Cessford | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Clan Douglas Clan Kerr Clan Maxwell | Clan Scott Clan Eliott | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Earl of Angus Kerr of Ferniehirst Kerr of Cessford † Lord Maxwell | Scott of Buccleuch | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | 600 [1] to 1,000 [2] [3] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
100 killed, [1] including Kerr the Laird of Cessford [1] | 80 killed [1] (four score) [3] | ||||||
Official name | Battle of Darnick | ||||||
Designated | 14 December 2012 | ||||||
Reference no. | BTL30 |
The Battle of Melrose was a Scottish clan battle that took place on 25 July 1526. [1] Walter Scott of Branxholme and Buccleuch attempted to rescue the young James V of Scotland from the powerful Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. [1] [3]
Guardianship of the young James V of Scotland had been secured by Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus in what was supposed to be a three monthly arrangement whereby each of the four members of the Council of Regency would care for James. [2] However, Douglas refused to hand James over to the Earl of Arran whose turn it was next. [2] James sent a message out to Sir Walter Scott asking him to launch a rescue attempt. [2] The young King James, while being escorted on a journey to Edinburgh by Douglas was intercepted by a large body of Border Reivers led by Sir Walter Scott at Melrose. [3] [2]
Angus's force mainly consisted of Kerrs and stood its ground, managing to drive off the attackers. [2] Scott led as many as 1000 men down Eildon Hill at Melrose. [2] Angus’s men charged and Scott’s men stood their ground also. [2] However, the Lord Hume arrived with a reinforcement of 80 Kerrs to support Angus, they attacked the wing of Scott's force afresh, [3] and the Scotts and Eliotts began to fall back and run. [3] [2] During the pursuit Andrew Kerr of Cessford was killed by one of the Eliotts. [3] [2] Scott lost about 80 of his men while the Earl of Angus lost about 100, [1] but still won the battle. [2]
The young King James stayed at Darnick Tower on the night following the battle and proceeded to Edinburgh the next day. [3] In the aftermath of the Battle of Melrose a deadly feud raged for many years in the Scottish Borders between the Kerrs and Scotts due to the death of Andrew Kerr, Laird of Cessford at the battle. [3] [2] [1] On 4 September 1526 the Battle of Linlithgow Bridge took place where once again anti-Douglas forces attempted to rescue the young King James from the Earl of Angus. [2]
James V was King of Scotland from 9 September 1513 until his death in 1542. He was crowned on 21 September 1513 at the age of seventeen months. James was the son of King James IV and Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England. During his childhood Scotland was governed by regents, firstly by his mother until she remarried, and then by his first cousin once removed, John Stewart, Duke of Albany. James's personal rule began in 1528 when he finally escaped the custody of his stepfather, Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. His first action was to exile Angus and confiscate the lands of the Douglases.
James I was King of Scots from 1406 until his assassination in 1437. The youngest of three sons, he was born in Dunfermline Abbey to King Robert III and Annabella Drummond. His eldest brother David, Duke of Rothesay, died under suspicious circumstances while detained by his uncle, Robert, Duke of Albany. James's other brother, Robert, died young. Concerns for James's safety deepened in the winter of 1405–1406 prompting plans to send him to France. In February 1406, James took refuge in the castle of the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth after his escort was attacked by supporters of Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas. He remained there until mid-March when he boarded a vessel bound for France. On 22 March, an English vessel captured the ship and delivered James to Henry IV of England. The ailing Robert III died on 4 April and the 11-year-old James, now the uncrowned King of Scotland, would remain in captivity for eighteen years.
James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray was a member of the House of Stewart as the illegitimate son of King James V of Scotland. At times a supporter of his half-sister Mary, Queen of Scots, he was the regent of Scotland for his half-nephew, the infant King James VI, from 1567 until his assassination in 1570. He was the first head of government to be assassinated with a firearm.
Clan Kerr is a Scottish clan whose origins lie in the Scottish Borders. During the Middle Ages, it was one of the prominent border reiver clans along the present-day Anglo-Scottish border and played an important role in the history of the Border country of Scotland.
Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus was a Scottish nobleman active during the reigns of James V and Mary, Queen of Scots. He was the son of George, Master of Angus, who was killed at the Battle of Flodden, and succeeded as Earl of Angus on the death of his grandfather, Archibald.
Clan Maxwell is a Scottish clan of the Scottish Lowlands and is recognized as such by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. However, as the clan does not currently have a chief, it is considered an armigerous clan.
William Douglas, 6th Earl of Morton was the son of Robert Douglas of Lochleven and Margaret Erskine, a former mistress of James V of Scotland.
Clan Scott is a Scottish clan and is recognised as such by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. Historically the clan was based in the Scottish Borders.
The Lord Warden of the Marches was an office in the governments of Scotland and England. The holders were responsible for the security of the border between the two nations, and often took part in military action. They were also responsible, along with Conservators of the Truce, for administering the special type of border law known as March law.
The skirmish known as Cleanse the Causeway, or Clear the Causeway, took place in the High Street of Edinburgh, Scotland, on 30 April 1520, between rival noblemen James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran, chief of Clan Hamilton, and Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, chief of Clan Douglas.
Clan Douglas is an ancient clan or noble house from the Scottish Lowlands.
Sir James Hamilton of Finnart was a Scottish nobleman and architect, the illegitimate son of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran, and Marion Boyd of Bonshaw. Although legitimated in 1512 while still a minor, he continued to be known as the "Bastard of Arran". As a key member of the Hamilton family, and second cousin of James V, King of Scotland, he became a prominent member of Scottish society.
Clan Eliott is a Border Reiver Scottish clan.
The Battle of Linlithgow Bridge is a battle that took place on 4 September 1526 in the village of Linlithgow Bridge, outside the Scottish town of Linlithgow. It was fought between a force of 10,000 men led by the Earl of Lennox and a force of 2,500 led by James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran. The battle was part of a power struggle in Scotland for control of the young Scottish king, James V. The battlefield was added to the national Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland prepared by Historic Scotland under the Scottish Historical Environment Policy of 2009.
Sir Walter Scott, 1st of Branxholme, 3rd of Buccleuch, known as "Wicked Wat", was a nobleman of the Scottish Borders and the chief of Clan Scott who briefly served as Warden of the Middle March He was an "inveterate English hater" active in the wars known as The Rough Wooing and a noted Border reiver. He was killed on Edinburgh High Street in a feud with Clan Kerr in 1552. His great-grandson was Sir Walter Scott, 1st Lord Scott of Buccleuch, the "Bold Buccleuch" (1565–1611), a border reiver famed for his role in the rescue of Kinmont Willie Armstrong.
Agnes Leslie, Countess of Morton was a Scottish noblewoman, being the daughter of George Leslie, 4th Earl of Rothes. She was the wife of William Douglas, 6th Earl of Morton, who as Laird of Lochleven Castle was the custodian of Mary, Queen of Scots during her captivity from June 1567 until her escape on 2 May 1568. Agnes was Queen Mary's chief female companion throughout her imprisonment; thus it was while Lady Agnes was recovering from childbirth that the queen successfully escaped from Lochleven.
John Somerville, 3rd Lord Somerville was the son of William Somerville, 2nd Lord Somerville and Janet Mowat. He was a member of the Scottish Parliament. In 1449 he fought with the Scots who defeated the English at Sark. He was also present at the siege of Roxburgh in 1460 during which James II of Scotland died.
Robert Maxwell, 5th Lord Maxwell was a member of the Council of Regency (1536) of the Kingdom of Scotland, Regent of the Isle of Arran and like his father before him patriarch of the House of Maxwell/Clan Maxwell. A distinguished Scottish nobleman, politician, soldier and in 1513 Lord High Admiral, Lord Maxwell was a member of James V of Scotland's royal council and served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1524, 1527 and 1535. He was also an Extraordinary Lord of Session in 1533. In 1537, he was one of the ambassadors sent to the French Court to negotiate the marriage of James to Mary of Guise, whom he espoused as proxy for the King.
Darnick is a village near Melrose in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, in the former Roxburghshire. The name was first recorded in 1124, and has changed from Dernewic, Dernwick and Darnwick to the present Darnick. Darnick Tower was built in c. 1425, and another tower house, Fisher's Tower, is still recognisable by its remains.
George Douglas of Pittendreich was a member of the powerful Red Douglas family who struggled for control of the young James V of Scotland in 1528. His second son became James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton and Regent of Scotland. Initially, George Douglas promoted the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots and Prince Edward of England. After war was declared between England and Scotland he worked for peace and to increase the power of Mary of Guise, the widow of James V.