HERTFORD AND OTHERS TO HENRY VIII.
A. (May 9th, 1544.)
Source.—Hamilton Papers, No. 233.
Please it your highness to understand that I the Earl of Hertford with Your Majesty's army here, marched out of this toun on Wednesday last, towards Edinburgh, and being set forwards, came to me an herald and trumpet from the provost and council of the toun, declaring on their behalf that they would set open the gates and deliver the keys unto me to do with the toun and them what I would, upon trust that I would be good lord unto them and save their lives and goods without burning or spoil of the toun, which should make no resistance unto me.
I told him forasmuch as they had before refused so to do, and had made me resolute answer that unless I would capitulate with them in what sort I would use them and their toun, they would not yield the same, but make resistances, which I took for a final resolution, I would therefore remain now at my liberty to do as I thought good when I came there; and therewith I asked, whether they would also undertake and promise for to deliver the castle? Whereunto he answered that it was out of his power to deliver the castle, but for the toun which was in their hands, it should be at my commandment. Whereupon I willed them to return, and to say unto the said provost and council that if they would render all to my will, they should forthwith avoid the toun of man, woman and childe, and at mine entry into the toun, if they did meet me and submit themselves, I would then do as I saw cause.
Whereupon he departed, and soon after when I came near to the toun, the provost and others of the toun with him, came to me and required me to be good lord unto them and their toun, which should be committed unto me without resistance, trusting that I would save their lives and goods, and not burn nor spoil their toun.
I made them in effect like answer as before I made to the herald, but being much pressed by them for the safetie of them and their toun with their goods as aforesaid, I willed them to return, saying that at mine entry within the toun, upon their submission and delivery of the keys as they offered, I would then use them with the more favour, as at my coming to the gates of the toun I would further declare. They returned with this answer, and I supposed verily that they would in this sort have delivered and yielded the toun; but immediately after, as soon as we were marched hard to the toun, the inhabitants of the suburbs raised a fire and a great smoke in one or two of their own houses betwixt us and the toun, and forthwith after, I had intelligence that they would defend and withstand us to their power. Whereupon I the said Earl caused me the Lord Admiral with the forward to march into the toun, who passed through the suburbs to the principal port of the toun, being an iron gate and well fortified with men and ordinance, which they shot so fast that some of our men being killed in the streets with the same, the rest began to shrink and retire, but that the gentlemen and others of the foreward, your majesty's servants, gave the onset and made so sharp assault and approach hard to the gate, that they recovered one piece of their artillery, and by violence drew it from them through the loops, where the same did lie in the gate. Nevertheless the Scots shot out of their windows and holes of their houses so fast with hand-guns, that our men being so astonied therewith, shot again at adventure, and did more hurt to their own fellows than to the enemys, whereby it chanced that one hit my Lord William with an arrow above the cheek, but the stroke was so faint and weakly shot that, thanked be God, it did him little or no hurt at all. In fine the said lord Admiral having caused Sir Christopher Morris to lay ordinance to the said gate, after three or iiii shots of a culverin, the gate flew open and our men entered the toun with such good courage, as all the enemies fled away, and many of them were slain, we think about vi or vii score at the least. And being thus entered within the toun, and our enemies discomfited, although I the said Earl had before taken order, that after the winning of the toun and the entry into the same, they should proceed no farther, nor make assault to the castle, till upon a future advice, yet when the said gate was thus won and opened with the ordinance, the gunners of their own courage, without advice or commandment of me the said Earl, and without the knowledge of one the Lord Admiral, made forthwith an approach with their battery pieces to the Castle of Edinburgh, and shot of a little while to the same; but the castle being so strong and the approach so dangerous on all sides, that it is not possible for men to stand to their pieces without utter destruction, the Scots with their shot both of cannon and other pieces out of the castle, slew our men and dismounted one of our pieces. So that I the said Earl perceiving the same, caused Mr. Lee and the Surveyor of Calais to view the approach, who said that the same was so dangerous, as the castle seemed to be impregnable without a long demour and tarrying upon it; for there could be, as they said, no case devised for the approach, but that the same must needs be so open upon the shot of the castle, as without the great loss of men it could not be entered, the ground being of hard rock, so that there was no earth to fill mounds with, nor yet to trench on, and notwithstanding all the shot that Sir Christopher Morris made, which endured almost two hours, the walls of the castle seemed so strong as they were little or nothing battered or impaired with the same. Whereupon I the said Earl caused him to retire and withdraw all his pieces of artillery saving that which was dismounted, which could not be lead away, the place being so dangerous, as men could not stand to mount the same again, and therefore I caused him to break it with over charge. And as soon as the ordinance was thus withdrawn and set forwards, I commanded the captains and soldiers to set fire in the toun, which being so raised in sundry parts, the soldiers fell into such a sudden rage and fear, that what by reason of the shot out of the castle, which beateth full upon the toun, and killed sundry of our soldiers, and again with such exclamations and cryings out upon no ground or cause, they began to flee so fast out of the toun, as by reason of the straight passage at the gate, the throng and press was so great, that one of them was like to destroy another; whereof was like to have grown some mischief and confusion. And if the smoke had not been such in the toun as blinded the Scots so that the same could not see the confusion and throng of our soldiers, undoubted with their shot they might have slain a great number of your people. But God be thanked, at last it was well appeased with much ado, and having made a jolly fire and smoke upon the toun, I the said Earl with Your Highness' army returned to our camp in this toun. And in this enterprise we lost not in all past xx men, but by reason of the said confusion amongst the soldiers the time passed and night came so fast on, that we could not tarry so long upon the burning of the toun throughout, as we would have done, though it be metely well smoked, and therefore we left it for that time. But yesterday arrived here the warden of the East and Middle marches, with the horsemen to the number of four thousand at the least, and this day I the said Earl have eftsoons visited the said toun of Edinburgh, which had chosen them a new provost, and intending to make a new resistance, had repaired the said chief port of the toun with stone and earth and stood somewhat stoutly to their defence. Nevertheless they were so well assaulted and quickly handled that the gate was soon set upon with our artillery and the toun won once again. In which assault were slain iiii or v hundred Scots, and but vii of our men lacking, thanks be to God. So that we trust Your Majesty's Commission given to me the said Earl for the burning of the said toun, is now well executed, for the toun and also the Abbey of Holyrood house is in manner wholly brent and desolate; which considering the dangerous entry into the same town by reason of the shot of the castle, we found to be a far more difficult and dangerous enterprise than before hath been supposed.
And whiles the toun was thus brenning, and we standing upon the hill without the toun to view the same, we might well hear the women and poor miserable creatures of the toun make exclamation and cryings out upon the cardinal in these words: "Wa worthe the Cardinal."[68] And also your horsemen since their arrival here have ridden abroad in the country and brent round about within v miles compass hereabouts and have gotten good booties, both of cattle and also ready money and plate to a good value and substance....
And finally, having made such devastation of the country hereabouts as your majesty hath commanded, I shall then proceed to the execution of the rest of my charge in our return home by land, which I trust shall be accomplished to your highness' honour and contentment. Thus Almighty God preserve your majesty in your royal estate most felicitously to endure. At Leith the ixth of May. Your Majesty's humble subjects and most bounden servants, E. Hertford, John Lisle, Rafe Sadleyr.
B. (May 18.)
Source.—Hamilton Papers, No. 240, Vol. II.
Please it Your Highness to understand that like as we wrote in our last letters to Your Majesty our determination to depart from Leith homewards by land with your army upon Thursday last, and so to devastate the country by the way in our return as we might conveniently, so have we now accomplished the same. And first before our departure from Leith having brent Edinburgh and sundry other towns and villages in those parties as we wrote in our said last letters,—we did likewise burn the town of Leith, the same morning that we departed thence, and such ships and boats as we found in the haven, meet to be brought away, we have conveyed thence by sea, and the rest are brent; and have also destroyed and brent the pier and haven. Which damages we think they shall not be able to recover in our time. And in our way homewards we have brent the town of Musselborough, Preston, Seton, with Lord Seton's principal house, himself being pricking aloof from us with a certain number of horsemen, so that he will see his own house and his own toun on fire, and also we have brent the touns of Haddington and Dunbar, which we dare assure Your Majesty be well burnt, with as many other piles, gentlemen's and others houses and villages as we might conveniently reach, within the limits or compass of our way homewards. And always had such respect towards the keeping of good order and array in our marching, as notwithstanding the Scots would daily prick about us, and make as many proud shows and braggs, they could take us at none advantage. And yesterday the Lords Hume and Seton, and also as we were informed, the Earl of Bothwell, had assembled together the number of two thousand horsemen and vi thousand footmen, and were once determined to have stopped us at the Pease, which is a very straight and ill passage for an army, assuring your majesty that three thousand men, being men of heart, and having captains of any policy or experience of the wars, might keep and defend the said passage against a greater power than we had. Nevertheless being the said Scots assembled and determined as is aforesaid, to keep that passage, when they saw your majesty's army and power marching towards them in an honest order and in such sort as they might well perceive were fully bent and determined to assault them, they did immediately disperse and scale themselves in our sight, and gave us the passage without resistance. And so this journey is accomplished to Your Majesty's honour.
Touching the castle of Temptallen, like as we wrote to Your Highness what we have done to Sir George Douglas in the same, so have I the Earl of Hertford since that time received letters from the Earl of Angus and the said Sir George, which I send herewith to Your Majesty; and what shall be Your Majesty's further pleasure to have done in that behalf, I shall accomplish accordingly; and would right gladly have returned by Temptallen, and made some countenance of assault to the same, but that partly I forbare and tarried for the said answer, and chiefly I was constrained to leave it for lack of carriages for great pieces of artillery and also for lack of powder; and besides that we were so disfurnished by carriages for our victuals, that we were not able to carry so much with us, as might serve us for any longer time than that we might march home. And yet having made as Good Shift and Provision for the same as we could for our lives, the soldiers, ere we came half-way home, were fain to drink water the residue of the way which they did with as good will as ever did men, and as well content to endure labour and pain, without grudging at the same. These respects and lacks enforced us to leave both Temptallen and Hume Castles much against our wills, and to make the haste we could homewards for avoiding of more inconvenience. So that this night we arrived here at Berwick with our whole army, and shall forthwith dissolve the same, to the intent Your Highness may the sooner be exonerated of your great charges sustained in that behalf.
Finally, we have received letters since our arrival here from the lords of your majesty's council, by the which it appeareth that Your Highness' pleasure to have 3900 soldiers chosen out of this army to be transported hence to Calais to serve Your Highness in France,—whereupon I the said Earl have called sundry of the captains afore me, and appointed such as I thought most meet with their numbers for that purpose. Assuring Your Majesty that though the gentlemen are most willing to serve, yet they declare their necessity to be such, which indeed is most evident,—as we see not how it is possible to furnish the said number presently from these parts, to be transported to Calais, unless the gentlemen and their men might have time to go home and prepare and furnish themselves in such sort as they might be able to serve Your Majesty to your honour and their honesties. For having in this journey spent all their money, they say that of force they must go home to make shift for more, and they have neither tents nor pavilions here; for because this enterprise into Scotland was by sea, all gentlemen had special commandment to bring no carriages with them, so that few or none brought any pavilion hither. And as for the soldiers having lain nightly in their clothes, since they came from home being now the space of two months, and for this fortnight, every night in the fields without covering, they have the most part of them, what with cold and great travail and scant victualling have caught such diseases both in their bodies and swelling in their legs, and be so wearied with labour and pain that few or none of them be meet to go to the seas, nor yet able to serve Your Majesty when they come to land to your honor. And besides that they be so far out of apparrell both in shirts, doublets, coats, and all other things, having also no money to furnish the same, that their captains cannot with honesty bring them to the field in such plight. So that except they might have time to refresh themselves, both to get health and such necessary furniture as they now want, undoubtedly we see not how it is possible to pick out the said number of 3900 of such men as may be sent with honesty to serve Your Highness purpose,—as I the said lord Admiral shall declare unto Your Majesty at my coming. In the mean season, we have appointed here 500 Harquebusiers, which be as forward and apt men to serve in strait feat as ever we saw, and also 200 of the Lord Cobham's men, 200 pioneers under the conduct of Mr. Lee and 50 of Sir Christopher Mone's men, besides 500 of those that come by sea, over and above 2000 reserved to keep the sea, so that the whole number that can be had here is 1450 men, which shall forthwith be embarked and transported to Calais, according to Your Majesty's pleasure. And this is as much as can be done here in that behalf, without a longer respect as is aforesaid. Thus Almighty God preserve Your Majesty in your royal estate most felicitously to endure.
At Berwick the xviiith of May and ix o'clock within night. Your Majesty's humble subjects and most bounden servants. (Signed) E. Hertford, John Lisle, Rafe Sadleyr.
[68] i.e. Cardinal Beaton, leader of the French Party in Scotland.