The siege of Haddington

From the 13th century to the 16th century, seven English kings came to Haddington and three of them were present at the burnings of the town. It was burned during King John's invasion in 1216 and in Henry III's of 1244 and again in 1356 when Edward III invaded Scotland after the fall of Berwick. In between, his grandfather, Edward I was here in 1296. Edward T was the selfstyled 'Hammer of the Scots', who stole the Stone of Destiny before he got defeated by William Wallace at Stirling Bridge not long after.

Later, in 1482, Richard III, while still Duke of Gloucester, led yet another invasion army belonging to Edward IV, through Haddington on his way to Edinburgh.

When they came again in April, 1548, it was the third invasion in four years, sent by Henry VIII's 'regent' Protector Somerset, in a last vain attempt to force the Scots into handing over the seven-year-old child Queen, Mary, Queen of Scots, to be betrothed to his young Prince Edward. In hindsight, had she been sent there and the prince had lived, the siege would never have happened.

A parliament was convened in the Abbey of Haddington and Mary was sent to the French court, to be betrothed to the young Dauphin and eventually to marry him. This decision, of course, ultimately sealed Mary's fate years later when her husband died and she returned to Scotland, a Catholic queen in a Protestant country. The year before the siege, the English won the Battle of Pinkie at Musselburgh, with more than a little help from their navy. As they were returning to England, they stopped at Haddington and burned the Franciscan Friary Church (the Lamp of Lothian) so called because of its magnificent windows and high Quire.

Lord Creye of Wilton seized the town and threw up a quadrangular earthen and turf wall around it. The wall was at least 20 feet high with a good parapet, and earth and timber bastions at each corner which were faced with turf. These bastions were double decked so that you had defenders on the first floor and cannons mounted on top to cover the walls lengthways. A shallow ditch ran all the way around the town. There were other earth works to protect the ports, with cannon and marksmen. A citadel was built within the old town fortifications. It was surrounded by earthen walls and would look like a mini fort where the defenders could retreat to form a last defence and it was needed on more than one occasion during the siege.

The French king Henry II sent 6,000 troops, plus a regiment of German mercenaries and a company of Italians. The Scots had 8,000 men, including Highlanders, dressed in tartan plaid and painted torsos, also men from Orkney, dressed in coats of mail, with their weapons, consisting of bow, quiver, sword and targe, all slung at their backs.

After the defences were completed, Lord Grey left 2,000 English foot and 500 horse soldiers in the town, plus companies of Albanian and Italian mercenaries and later a company of Spanish troops. Although the town was briefly relieved after three months, it took an army of 16,000 to do it. As soon as they left, the Scots and French closed in again.

There were hundreds killed on both sides in skirmishes around the walls and the French got into the suburbs twice but could not breach the citadel walls. The Franco/Scots also destroyed an English army sent to relieve the town a second time. This was called the 'Tuesday chase' because after the English broke and ran for the border, the Franco/Scots horse soldiers harried them nearly to Dunbar and the English suffered large losses. This was the longest town siege in British history. It lasted for 18 long months. After six weeks the English captains complained that the French artillery had so shot up the town that not a whole house was left in Haddington for their poor soldiers to lay their weary heads, forcing them to lie under the walls.

By the 10th week, they were starving and were eating horses, dogs, cats and rats, and hundreds of men had died or were dying, as the plague was rife among them. This plague had actually spread up here from Northumbria and there were no medicines of any kind.

After they were re-supplied with fresh men and supplies, the English held the town for a further 15 months. Over this period the English lost all their forts between here and the border. Protector Somerset decided that because of the plague and also the fact that Haddington had become 'an island in a sea of enemies' and that it would take a large army to relieve it again, to declare the town untenable and sent an army of 11,000 troops under the Earl of Rutland, with orders to uplift the men and munitions that were left, destroy the fortifications and raze the town. The Franco/Scots moved back and let them go much to the surprise of the English, and the citizens of Haddington, who stayed throughout and helped the English all through the siege, got their thanks when they saw their town destroyed.

David J. Motherwell

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