The turbulent personal rule of
Queen Mary I came to an end in 1567, when, incarcerated in the grim
fortress of Loch Leven, she was forced to abdicate the throne in favour
of her infant son, James VI. But Mary, famously, escaped from her prison
the following year, quickly assembling an army and confronting her
enemies at the battle of Langside. There was to be no triumphant
restoration, however: her forces were defeated, and she responded by
fleeing precipitously to England, remaining a prisoner of Elizabeth I
until her execution nineteen years later.
Yet the queen’s flight
did not immediately kill her cause. She was, after all, the anointed and
undoubtedly rightful sovereign, and this air of legitimacy, combined
with ties of kinship and patronage, personal ambition, and, to a lesser
extent, religious considerations, ensured that many Scots remained loyal
to her. Prominent among these ‘Queen’s Men’ were the Hamilton family,
led by the Protestant James, earl of Arran and duke of Châtellerault,
whose extensive influence and position as second-in-line to the throne
gave Mary’s party significant clout.
Queen Mary and James
Stewart, earl of Moray
Ranged against the queen’s partisans were the
‘King’s Men’, supporters of the baby James VI, but in reality led by his
regent, and Mary’s half-brother, James, earl of Moray. This grouping
tended to be vocal about the religious aspects of the conflict, setting
themselves up as defenders of the Reformation again a Catholic queen,
although they often cast Mary as a tyrant who deserved deposition on
political grounds as well. While these issues undoubtedly influenced
some, most of James’s partisans were probably driven by a similar sort
of personal calculus, rooted in obligation and self-interest, as
influenced Mary’s supporters.
In mid-1568, just after Mary’s
flight, the ‘Queen’s Men’ were dominant in the south-west, in the
Lanarkshire and Argyll areas, and in the far north and north-east, while
the ‘King’s Men’ held sway elsewhere. Initial efforts by the ‘King’s
Men’ to subdue some of these areas foundered with the assassination of
Regent Moray early in 1570 (incidentally, the first assassination of a
head of government anywhere in the word by means of a firearm), but
support from Elizabeth I allowed them to stabilise their position and
resume campaigning in Clydesdale. A six-month truce beginning in late
1570 merely postponed the conflict, and when it reignited, the ‘King’s
Men’ were again on the offensive. Their capture of the Marian fortress
of Dumbarton Castle in April 1571, followed in short order by the
defection of several of Mary’s leading supporters, including the earls
of Argyll and Cassillis, marked a decisive shift in the conflict.
With campaigns and defections continuing to shift the localities in
favour of James’s party, the war increasingly came to focus on
Edinburgh. The capital long resisted picking a side, largely taking its
cue from the governor of Edinburgh Castle, William Kirkcaldy of Grange.
But in April 1571, Grange declared for Mary, taking both castle and city
with him. The ‘King’s Men’ could not feel secure until they pacified
Edinburgh, and so began a long and grinding struggle for control of the
capital. James’s supporters eventually managed to reoccupy the town
itself in autumn 1572, but the castle – still arguably the most
formidable fortress in the British Isles – obstinately held out.
Most of the remaining Marian partisans surrendered in the ‘pacification
of Perth’ of February 1573, leaving the ‘Queen’s Men’ with little except
Edinburgh Castle, where Grange still held out. But in April, the ‘King’s
Men’ were finally able to turn English sympathy into substantial
military support; a force of 1,000 English troops surrounded the castle
and began bombarding it with their 27 siege guns. Grange resisted for
twelve days, but finally, on 28 May, he surrendered, thereby bringing
the Marian Civil War to a close and confirming the deposition of Queen
Mary in favour of King James. |
