The Rough Wooing 1543 to 1551

When James V died after the battle of Solway Moss in 1542, his six-days-old daughter became the monarch – Mary Queen of Scots. Henry VIII promptly invaded Scotland to force a marriage agreement between Mary and his infant son Edward, and so claim the Scottish crown for England. The resulting 9 years’ war became known as the Rough Wooing.

The Scottish court asked France for assistance against Henry under the terms of the Auld Alliance. The price of this help was the signing of a marriage agreement between Mary and Francis – the three-year-old son of King Henry II of France. In 1548, five year-old Mary was sent to safety in France, and the first of 8,000 French troops arrived in Scotland.

When Henry VIII died in 1547 the war was continued on behalf of his son King Edward I, now age 9, by his regent Edward Seymour 1st Duke of Somerset.