Битва при Пинки-Клюге: "Чёрная суббота" Шотландии

Part of the Rough Wooing (10 September 1547)

The Battle of Pinkie, also known as the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh (/lang//k//l//ʌ//f/ KLUF, ), took place on 10 September 1547 on the banks of the River Esk near Musselburgh, Scotland. The last pitched battle between Scotland and England before the Union of the Crowns, it was part of the conflict known as the Rough Wooing. It was a catastrophic defeat for Scotland, where it became known as "Black Saturday". A highly detailed and illustrated English account of the battle and campaign authored by an eyewitness William Patten was published in London as propaganda four months after the battle.

In the last years of his reign, King Henry VIII of England tried to secure an alliance with Scotland by the marriage of the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, to his young son, the future Edward VI. When diplomacy failed, and Scotland was on the point of an alliance with France, he launched a war against Scotland that has become known as the Rough Wooing. The war also had a religious aspect; some Scots opposed an alliance that would bring religious Reformation on English terms. During the battle, the Scots taunted the English soldiers as "loons" (persons of no consequence. A “loon” in Scots and Doric is a male child), "tykes," and "heretics". The Earl of Angus, who is said to have arrived with monks "the professors of the Gospel", the heavy pikemen of the Lowlands, eight thousand strong, was in the lead. When Henry VIII died in 1547, Edward Seymour, maternal uncle of Edward VI, became Lord Protector and Duke of Somerset, with (initially) unchallenged power. He continued the policy of seeking forcible alliance with Scotland by demanding both the marriage of Mary to Edward, and the imposition of an Anglican Reformation on the Scottish Church. Early in September, he led a well equipped army into Scotland, supported by a large fleet. The Earl of Arran, Scottish Regent at the time, was forewarned by letters from Adam Otterburn, his representative in London, who had observed English war preparations. Otterburn may have seen the leather horse armour made by the workshops of Nicholas Bellin of Modena and Hans Hunter.

The Imperial ambassador François van der Delft went to the court of King Edward VI at Oatlands Palace to hear the news of the battle from William Paget. Van der Delft wrote to the Queen Dowager, Mary of Hungary, with his version of the news on 19 September. He described the cavalry skirmish on the day before the battle. He had heard that on the day of the battle, when the English army encountered the Scottish formation, the Scots advance horsemen dismounted and crossed their lances, which they used like pikes standing in close formation. Van der Delft was told that the Earl of Warwick then attempted to attack the Scots from behind using smoking fires as a diversion. When they engaged the Scottish rearguard the Scots took flight, apparently following some who already had an understanding with the Protector Somerset. The rest of the Scots army then attempted to flee the field. Van der Delft wrote a shorter description for Prince Philip on 21 October. In this account he lays emphasis on the Scots attempting to change position. He said the Scots crossed the brook in order to occupy two hills which flanked both armies. The Scottish army, "without any need whatever were seized with panic and began to fly". Another letter with derivative news of the battle was sent by John Hooper in Switzerland to the Reformer Henry Bullinger. Hooper mentions that Scots had to abandon their artillery due to the archers commanded by the Earl of Warwick, and when the Scots changed position the sun was in their eyes. He was told there were 15,000 Scottish casualties and 2,000 prisoners. There were 17,000 English in the field and 30,000 Scots. Hooper's letter is undated but he includes the false early report that Mary of Guise surrendered in person to Somerset after the battle. These newsletters, though compiled and written by non combatants days after the battle and far from the battlefield, are nevertheless important sources for the historian and for reconstruction of the events, to compare with Patten's narrative and archaeological evidence from the field.

Although they had suffered a resounding defeat, the Scottish government refused to come to terms. The infant Queen Mary was smuggled out of the country to France to be betrothed to the young Dauphin of France, Francis. Somerset occupied several Scottish strongholds and large parts of the Lowlands and Borders but, without peace, these garrisons became a useless drain on the Treasury.

Although the Scots blamed traitors for the defeat, it may be fairer to say that a Renaissance army defeated a medieval army. Henry VIII had taken steps towards creating standing naval and land forces which formed the nucleus of the fleet and army that gave Somerset the victory. However, the military historian Gervase Phillips has defended Scottish tactics, pointing out that Arran moved from his position by the Esk as a rational response to English manoeuvres by sea and land. In his 1877 account of the battle, Major Sadleir Stoney commented that "every amateur knows that changing front in presence of an enemy is a perilous operation". Early commentators such as John Knox had focused on the move as the cause of the defeat and attributed the order to move to the influence of local landowners George Durie, Abbot of Dunfermline, and Hugh Rig of Carberry. Marcus Merriman sees the initial Scottish field encampment as the most sophisticated ever erected in Scotland, let down by their cavalry numbers. Gervase Phillips maintains the defeat may be considered due to a crisis of morale after the English cavalry charge, and notes William Patten's praise of the Earl of Angus's pikemen. Merriman regards Somerset's failure to press on and capture Edinburgh and Leith as a loss of "a magnificent opportunity" and "a massive blunder" which cost him the war. In 1548, the Scottish Master of Artillery, Lord Methven, gave his opinion that the battle was lost due to growing support in Scotland for English policy, and the mis order and great haste of the Scottish army on the day. The naval bombardment was an important aspect of the battle. The English navy was commanded by Lord Clinton and comprised 34 warships with 26 support vessels. William Patten mentions the Galley Subtle, captained by Richard Broke, as one of the ships at the battle, and included it in one of his plans, depicted in the woodcut with its oars visible, close to Musselburgh. The guns of the ships in English fleet were recorded in an inventory. The Galley Subtle carried two brass demi cannons, two brass Flanders demi culverins, breech loading iron double basses and single basses. The galleys could be brought near the shore by their rowers. After the battle, Andrew Dudley and Michael Durham sailed to Broughty Castle in the Galley Subtle and fired three shots, effecting its surrender.

Warned of the approach of the English army, the Scottish artillery was made ready at Edinburgh Castle. Extra gunners were recruited and 140 pioneers, i. e. workmen, were employed by Duncan Dundas to move the guns. On 2 September carts were hired to take the guns and the Scottish tents and pavilions towards Musselburgh. There were horses, and oxen were supplied by the Laird of Elphinstone. John Drummond of Milnab, master carpenter of the Scottish ordnance, led the wagon train. There was a newly painted banner, and ahead a boy played on the "swesche", a drum used to alert people. William Patten described the English officers of the Ordnance after the battle retrieving 30 of the Scottish guns, which were left lying in sundry places, on Sunday 11 September. They found one brass culverin, 3 brass sakers, 9 smaller brass pieces, and 17 other iron guns mounted on carriages. Some of these guns appear in the English royal inventory of 1547–48, at the Tower of London where sixteen Scottish brass guns were recorded. They were a demi cannon, 2 culverins, 3 sakers, 9 falconets, and a robinet.

Ralph Sadler was treasurer for Somerset's expedition in Scotland from 1 August to 20 November 1547. On 22 August, he informed the Earl of shrewsbury that ships were ready to sail to Aberlady with provisions. The expense of the journey northwards cost £7468 12s–10d, and the return was £6065 14s–4d. Soldiers' wages were £26,299 7s–1d. For his own expenses, Sadler had £211 14s–8d with £258 14s–9d for his equipment and auditor's expenses. A number of special rewards were given to spies, Scottish guides, and others who gave good service, and to the captain of the Spanish mercenaries. The Scottish herald at the battlefield was given 100 shillings. When Sadler's account was audited in December 1547, Sadler was found to owe Edward VI £546 13s–11d which he duly returned.

The battle site is now in East Lothian. The battle took place most probably in the cultivated ground south east of Inveresk Church, just to the south of the main East Coast railway line. There are two vantage points for viewing the ground. Fa'side Castle above the village of Wallyford was just behind the English position, and with the aid of binoculars, a visitor can get a good view of the battle area though the Scottish position is now obscured by buildings. The best impression of their position is obtained from the golf course west of the River Esk and just off the B6415 road. The Scottish centre occupied ground a few yards west of the clubhouse. The Inveresk eminence, an important tactical feature at the time of the battle, is now built over, but from it, a visitor can get down to the Esk and walk for some way along the bank. The walk gives a further idea of a part of the Scottish position, but the town of Musselburgh now completely covers the left of the line. The battlefield was added to the Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland in 2011. A stone commemorating the battle has been erected southwest of Wallyford village near the junction of Salters Road and the A1 road. The stone is carved with St. Andrew's Cross, the English rose and Scottish thistle and the name and date of the battle. It is situated on the north side of the driveway to the home that is in the northwest corner of the intersection. Co ordinates: 55.9302992°N 3.0210942°W. In September 2017 the Scottish Battlefields Trust staged the first major re enactment of the battle in the grounds of Newhailes House. Such re enactments are intended to continue on a triennial cycle.

Some of the injured soldiers were treated by Lockhart, a barber surgeon from Dunbar. David H. Caldwell has written, "English estimates put the slaughter as high as 15,000 Scots killed and 2,000 taken but the Earl of Huntly's figure of 6,000 dead is probably nearer the truth." Caldwell says of the English casualties, "Officially it was given out that losses were only 200 though the rumour about the English court, fed by private letters from those in the army, indicated that 500 or 600 was more likely."

William Patten, The Late Expedition into Scotland (1548), in A. E. Pollard, Tudor Tracts (London, 1903), pp. 53–157. Joseph Bain, Calendar of State Papers, Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898). Teulet, A., ed., Relations politiques de la France et de l'Espagne avec l'Écosse au XVIe siècle, vol. 1 (1862) pp. 124–158, Latin account following William Patten. Arthur Clifford, Sadler State Papers, vol. 2 (Edinburgh (1809) pp. 353–364, the English army treasurer's account. David Constable, Jean de Berteville's Récit de l'expédition en Ecosse l'an 1546 et de la battayle de Muscleburgh (Bannatyne Club: Edinburgh, 1825), a French eyewitness fighting on English side. Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, A commentary of the services and charges of William Lord Grey of Wilton, by his son Arthur Grey, Camden Society (1847).

. David H. Caldwell, 'The Battle of Pinkie,' in Norman Macdougall, Scotland and War, AD 79–1918 (Edinburgh, 1991), pp. 61–94. Phillips, Gervase, 'In the Shadow of Flodden: Tactics, Technology and Scottish Military Effectiveness, 1513–1550', Scottish Historical Review, vol. b77, no. 204 part 2, EUP (Oct. 1998), pp. 162–182. Phillips, Gervase, 'Anglo Scottish Wars: Battle of Pinkie Cleugh', Military History, August (1997). F. Sadlier Stoney, Life and Times of Ralph Sadleir (Longman: London. 1877) pp. 107–114. Alex Hodgson, an East Lothian born folk singer/songwriter pays tribute to the battle of Pinkie Cleugh through the song Doon Pinkie Cleugh on his second album 'The Brig Tae Nae Where', published on Scottish folk record label Greentrax Recordings.