Tudor Times is the online repository for all things Tudor and Stewart (1485–1625)

On 10th September 1549 the last pitched battle between English and Scottish forces before the Union of the Crowns took place. The battle, near Musselburgh, is known as the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh. It was the culmination of a period of conflict known as the Wars of the Rough Wooing.

On the death of James V, his uncle, Henry VIII, hit upon the idea that James’ heir should be married to his son, Edward, thus uniting the two countries under an English King. This did not play well in Scotland, and resistance, although not universal amongst the Scots nobles, was widespread.

The 9th September 1513 was one of the most momentous, and saddest, days in the history of Scotland. On that day, King James IV led his troops into battle at a remote place in Northumberland called Branxton Moor, now known as Flodden. The Scots army was bigger, better equipped, and, initially, better positioned than the English. The English however, had the advantage of a commander who, although over seventy, was a clever and insightful general. Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, was a veteran of the Battle of Bosworth, and years of skirmishing on the Border. He knew James well, having accompanied the young Margaret Tudor, James’ wife, to her wedding ten years before. He used this knowledge to entice James out of the commanding position, and to control his own men effectively. James, his twenty-year old illegitimate son, Alexander, and a host of Scottish Earls and lords were killed. Read more about the Battle of Flodden here.

On 8th September 1538, Thomas Audley, the Lord Chancellor, wrote to Thomas Cromwell on behalf of himself and the Earl of Oxford. They wished to express their gratitude to the King for the permission they had received to visit the young Prince Edward, at Havering. They praised the little boy who was not quite eleven months old, in glowing terms. They had never seen ‘so goodly a child of his age, so merry, so pleasant, so good and loving countenance, and so earnest an eye as it were a sage judgment towards every person that repaireth to his Grace.’ He was losing his baby fat, could stand and would be able to walk if his nurses would let him. They completely concurred (we may be unsurprised to note) with the King’s decision to move the child from Havering, in Essex, which, although it was pleasant in summer, would probably be rather cold in winter.