Preparations for the siege The French army continued to strengthen the fortifications of Leith during late 1559. Within the walls was a raised platform for guns, called a
"cavalier" by the anonymous French journalist of the siege. At the end of October, the Lords of the Congregation brought two guns to "Craigingalt" (
Calton Hill) and began to bombard Leith. The French made a
sortie on
All Saints' Day, capturing an iron culverin which was taken Leith and the other cannon was broken and left on the roadway. At the end of January 1560, an English fleet, under the command of
William Wynter, arrived in the
Firth of Forth, having sailed north from the naval base at
Queenborough Castle in the
Thames Estuary. English diplomats claimed Wynter's arrival in the Firth was accidental, and Norfolk told Wynter to act as if he was a maverick with no commission. The ships were sent by
William Cecil under the authority of Queen Elizabeth. After the Treaty of Berwick provided a framework for an English military incursion, the English made plans to bring the army and guns to Leith. Considering the weather and difficulties of the road into Scotland, on 8 February 1559
Thomas Howard,
Duke of Norfolk and
Lord Grey de Wilton wrote to the Lords of Congregation from Newcastle; "we find greate difficultie of the cariadge of the same by land at this tyme of the yere, as well by reason of the deepe and foule wayes between Barwick and Lythe, as also that for such a number of cariadges and draught horses as the same doth require can not be had in time, and therefore we suppose the same must of necessity be transported by sea, and the number of footmen also appointed for this journey to be set on land as near unto Lythe as may be convenientlie. And in that case, our horsemen to enter by land as soon as we have intelligence of the landing of our footmen." In the event, an army of around 6,000 English soldiers, under Lord Grey de Wilton marched from Berwick, arriving in early April to join up with the Scottish Lords. Camping for a night at
Halidon Hill, then at
Dunglass and
Lintonbriggs, the English army were at
Prestongrange on 4 April where the lighter artillery pieces for the siege were landed from ships at
Aitchison's Haven. Just before this English army arrived, the French raided
Glasgow and Linlithgow. The French garrison at Haddington had withdrawn to the prepared position at Leith, swelling the number of French troops there to an estimated 3,000. Meanwhile, Mary of Guise and her advisors stayed secure in Edinburgh Castle from 28 March 1560. The Keeper of the castle,
John Erskine declared it neutral, and this was respected by both sides, and the castle played no part in the conflict. Before the English army arrived at Leith, the commander William Grey of Wilton considered that capturing the castle with the Queen Regent might be a better option. However, the Duke of Norfolk advised him against it, as their proper target was the French soldiery in Leith, not Erskine's Scottish garrison.
Battle of Restalrig When the Duke of Norfolk arrived at Berwick in January 1560, Mary of Guise's military advisor
Jacques de la Brosse wrote to him saying he did not believe the rumour in Edinburgh that Norfolk was Elizabeth's lieutenant-general in Scotland, there to attack the French and favour the rebels, against the peace treaty between Scotland and England. However, that was exactly Norfolk's mission. Norfolk remained at Berwick, instructed that Grey of Wilton was to have charge of "martial affairs" in Scotland, as Grey himself wished, while
Ralph Sadler, a long-serving diplomat, was to forward a peaceable settlement with Mary of Guise by diplomacy, liaising with the Duke of Châtellerault and his party. Elizabeth appointed James Croft to be Grey of Wilton's deputy. Ralph Sadler was given Grey's border administrative roles at Berwick upon Tweed. Grey of Wilton set his camp at
Restalrig village on 6 April 1560 and twice offered to parley with Mary of Guise and the French military commander
Henri Cleutin, Sieur d'Oysel et Villeparisis via the English
Berwick Pursuivant. This offer was refused, and the English herald
Rouge Croix was sent to demand that the French withdraw from the field into Leith. Cleutin replied that his troops were on his master and mistress's ground. Soon after this exchange fighting broke out at Restalrig with casualties on both sides. Some French mounted
arquebusiers who pursued an English detachment were killed on the slopes above Leith, or captured by the sea-shore. Over 100 French casualties were reported with 12 officers killed and a number of prisoners taken.
George Buchanan and
John Hayward's 17th century history make the point that the French were trying to secure the high-ground to the south of Leith: Hawkhill, the crag (at
Lochend), and the chapel, which the French journalist of the siege called the "Magdalene Chapel". Hayward and Mary's secretary
John Lesley mentioned that George Howard and
James Croft were parleying with Mary of Guise at the spur blockhouse of Edinburgh Castle when the fighting started.
Mount Pelham set up headquarters Norfolk reported that, "Restaricke Deanrie is so sweete, that our campe lyeth not within halfe a myle and more of our trenches." The English began constructing their siege-works against the town in mid-April. There were trenches on the Hawkhill ridge north of Restalrig and towards
Lochend Castle. there was a fortlet, "Mount Pelham" named after the captain of the
pioneers,
William Pelham. Pelham led a force of 400 pioneers. The fort faced across the present-day
Leith Links towards the eastern side of the town and
South Leith Church. Mount Pelham was developed from a trench dug on the night of 12 April and finished 13 days later as a
sconce with four corner
bastions. An eyewitness, Humfrey Barwick later wrote that he suggested that Pelham should begin his fort "at the fwte of this hill and run straight to yonder hillocke," presumably meaning by hillock the "Giant's Brae" and "Lady Fyfe's Brae" on Leith Links. Captain Cuthbert Vaughan was the fortlet's commander with 240 men. Five years earlier, Vaughan and James Croft had been imprisoned as supporters of
Lady Jane Grey, and they subsequently took part in
Wyatt's Rebellion. Vaughan was killed in 1563, at the siege of Newhaven in France. Both Holinshed and George Buchanan mention the fort was too far from Leith for its cannon to have much effect on the town. While the English were at work in April the French also constructed and manned entrenchments outside of the main walls encircling the town.
The bombardment The English had brought some small cannon with them. Holinshed records that the carriages and shot for the large siege guns were landed on 10 April and the guns on the next day. The Scottish chronicle, the
Diurnal of Occurrents, notes that 27 heavier English artillery pieces were shipped to "Figgate" at
Portobello. The large guns were ready on Sunday 14 April, Easter day, and the English bombardment began. The cannon were placed in batteries to the west and south of Leith. According to a later chronicle, the
History of the Estate of Scotland, the besiegers' guns were placed at the same distance of "twoe fflight shott" from South Leith church as Mount Pelham. The chronicle calls the location "Clayhills". The English plan of Leith, dated 7 July 1560, marks the position of the "first battery" to the south west of the Church, lying in front of the later gun position called "Mount Somerset", at
Pilrig. The French journal also mentions Pilrig as well as the entrenchment at Pelham, and a rumour that the newly arrived English great guns would be placed in the trenches on Hawkhill to the south. The French returned fire from cannon on the steeple of St Anthony's church, Logan's Bulwark, and the Sea Bulwark. John Lesley,
Bishop of Ross, wrote that despite the bombardment, the French commanders and Father Andrew Leich celebrated Easter mass in South Leith Parish Church. During the service a cannonball passed harmlessly in through a window and out of the church door, while outside the air was thick with broken stone and plaster. This story was omitted from the contemporary
Scots Language manuscript of Lesley's
History.
Mount Pelham overwhelmed The next day, 16 April, according to the French journal of the siege, 60 French cavalry and 1,200 foot soldiers overwhelmed the unfinished English position at Mount Pelham and spiked four cannons, killing 200 men and taking officers as prisoners.
Arthur Grey, the son and biographer of Grey de Wilton, who was commander of a company of demi-lance horsemen, was shot twice, but was not in danger of losing his life. The French were repulsed and Norfolk reported 150 killed on both sides. Humfrey Barwick blamed Arthur Grey's injury on William Pelham not securing the position properly while the fortlet was under construction. According to a poem by
Thomas Churchyard, a Scotswoman initiated this attack by signalling an opportunity to the French. She came with Scottish victuallers to the English position and made her sign from a crag where a cannon had been placed. This story may refer to the existing mounds near the site of Mount Pelham called the "Giant's Brae" and "Lady Fyfe's Brae". The Leith historian Alexander Campbell, writing in 1827, regarded the mounds as important monuments of the siege, writing that the eastern mound took its name from "Lady Fife's Well", and children called the larger mound by the Grammar School "the Giant's Brae". This was repeated by D.H. Robertson, and the 1852 Ordnance Survey map marked the Giant's Brae as (the remains of) Somerset's Battery with Lady Fyfe's Brae as (the remains of) Pelham's Battery. A more recent historian,
Stuart Harris, dismissed the assertion that these mounds were siegeworks rather than natural hillocks, stating that the belief was a "spurious 'tradition". The
Diurnal of Occurrents records another attack on the completed Mount Pelham on 18 June by 300 French soldiers who were chased back to Leith by 30 English cavalry. Forty French were killed, seven captured, and the English lost their trumpeter.
Mount Somerset, Mount Falcon, and Byer's Mount At the end of April the siege works were extended westwards and a new emplacement built in the vicinity of the later Pilrig House, named "Mount Somerset" after Captain Francis Somerset, whom Thomas Churchyard identifies as the brother of the
Earl of Worcester. Among the Scots recorded at the siege at this time, on 27 April 1560 with a tent (palzoun) at the Water of Leith, were Robert and John
Haldane of
Gleneagles. The works were continued further west and north, across the
Water of Leith to
Bonnington, where a series of batteries were established. "Mount Falcon" was built after 7 May 1560 and, according to John Lesley, commanded the houses on the
Shore quayside. The battery was placed west of a bend in the Water of Leith, near the intersection of South Fort Street and West Bowling Green Street. A position to the north with a single cannon is marked "Byere Mownt" on the
Petworth map. Stuart Harris locates the gun's position near the intersection of the present-day Ferry Road and Dudley Avenue South. The completed emplacements stretched for approximately around the fortified town, with six gun sites at a distance of around from the Leith ramparts. Mounts Pelham and Somerset, named after their officers, were both large temporary forts with ramparts up to high.
7 May – an English defeat Elizabeth and her secretary
William Cecil were exerting pressure on Norfolk for a result at Leith. To show that progress was being made, Norfolk started forwarding Grey's dispatches and apologising for his depute's "humour", asking that Elizabeth should send Grey a letter showing her thanks. Norfolk brought in expert military advisors,
Sir Richard Lee and his own cousin Sir George Howard, who Norfolk believed would bring the siege to a rapid conclusion. Norfolk wrote to William Cecil on 27 April that it was a shame to have "to lie so long at a sand wall." It was planned to storm the town before daybreak on 7 May. In early May cannon were deployed to make a substantial breach in the western ramparts. The assault was to be carried out in two waves, the first at 3.00 am by 3,000 men, the second by 2,240, with a further 2,400 holding back to keep the field. William Winter would wait for a signal to land 500 troops on the quayside of the
Water of Leith at the Shore inside the town. As a diversion, Cuthbert Vaughan's 1,200 men with 500 Scotsmen were to attack from the south, crossing Leith Links from Mount Pelham.
James Croft's men would assault from the north-west, presumably at low-tide. There was an accidental fire in Leith on 1 May which burnt in the south-west quarter. The next evening Grey planted his battery against the west walls and started firing before 9.00 am, writing to Norfolk that his gunners had not yet found their mark. The next day, Grey was worried that the French had effected repairs so the town appeared even stronger. He continued with the bombardment and ordered his captains to try small-scale assaults against the walls to gather intelligence. Cuthbert Vaughan measured the ditch and ramparts for making scaling ladders. The attempt was now scheduled for 4.00 am on Tuesday 7 May and by two hours past daylight the English were defeated. Although there were two breaches, the damage to the walls was insufficient. None of the flanking batteries were disabled, and the scaling ladders were too short. The result was heavy losses estimated at 1000 to 1500 Scots and English. A report by
Peter Carew estimated a third of the dead were Scottish. However, Carew's total of six-score dead, which was followed by George Buchanan, is roughly a tenth of the other reports. The accountant and victualler of Berwick,
Sir Valentine Browne noted there were 1,688 men unable to serve, still on the payroll, hurt at the assault or at various other times, and now sick or dead. The author of the
Diurnal of Occurrents put the total number slain at 400. Humfrey Barwick was told the French collected the top-coats of the English who had reached and died on the walls, and 448 were counted. The French journal claims only 15 defenders were killed.
John Knox and the French journal attributed some of the casualties to the women of Leith throwing stones from the ramparts. According to Knox, Mary of Guise surveyed her victory from the fore-wall of Edinburgh Castle with some pleasure, comparing the English dead laid on the walls of Leith to fair tapestry, laid out to air in the sun: The Frenche, prowd of the victorie, strypit naikit all the slayne, and laid thair carcassis befoir the hot sune alang thair wall, quhair thay sufferit thame to lye ma dayis nor ane, unto the quhilk, quhen the Quene Regent luikit, for myrth sche happit and said, "Yonder are the fairest tapestrie that I ever saw, I wald that the haill feyldis that is betwix this place and yon war strewit with the same stuiffe." Knox thought James Croft had not wholeheartedly played his part. Carew heard that Croft should have attacked a breach in the Pale: instead his men "ran up between the Church and the water." Norfolk blamed Croft, who he believed colluded with Guise, later writing, "I thought a man could not have gone nigher a traitor than Sir James, I pray God make him a good man." Richard Lee made a map of Leith, which Norfolk sent to London on 15 May. This map or "platte" was perhaps made as much for the enquiry into the 7 May events as for future works. Elizabeth read Carew and Valentine's reports and sent them to William Cecil with instructions to keep them safe and secret.
Mines and code Now diplomatic efforts for peace were re-doubled, but the siege was tightened. The English brought specialists from
Newcastle upon Tyne to
dig mines towards the fortifications. Mary of Guise, who was very ill by this time, wrote a letter to d'Oysel asking him to send her drugs from Leith. This letter was passed to Grey of Wilton who was suspicious because medicines could be easily found in Edinburgh. According to John Knox, he held the letter in the heat of a fire and discovered a message in
invisible ink. Grey threw the letter on the fire. The French journal of the siege puts the story on 5 May, and says that Guise required ointment from one Baptiste in Leith, and the secret cipher on the back of the letter was "insert the notice of the English enterprise and other matters." Grey spoilt the letter looking for the secret writing and could not return it to James Drummond, the trumpet messenger. Coded letters were carried out of Leith by another soldier, a drummer messenger of the Lords of the Congregation. First,
Captain Sarlabous got him to take a note to a lady-in-waiting of Mary of Guise which had a secret cipher on the back. On 9 May he took a message with a handkerchief containing information about the English mines. An English secretary in Paris,
John Somers or Sommer, managed make an alphabet or cipher key for some of the codes used by Guise and French diplomats. Mary of Guise discovered that the English and their allies had one of her cipher keys when a copy of a letter to her was found, deciphered and translated into the
Scots language. Mary of Guise sent letters to d'Oysel describing what her spies had found out about these works. On 19 May she wrote in code that the English were mining at the Citadel, St Anthony's Flanker, and the Mill Bulwark. The English were confident that their mines would be deeper than any French counter-mines. Guise now found it more difficult to send her letters into Leith, and this one was captured and deciphered. The English ambassador in France,
Nicholas Throckmorton, discovered that Mary of Guise had obtained details of the plans for the 7 May assault. She had also changed her ciphers. Throckmorton intercepted a letter meant for Jacques de la Brosse from Mary of Guise's brothers. He hoped to infiltrate his agent
Ninian Cockburn into Leith posing as the messenger. He gave Ninian, a captain in the
Garde Écossaise, the alias "Beaumont". By 18 June 1560, after Mary of Guise had died, the French at Edinburgh Castle realised their cipher was in English hands, and they advised the Leith garrison to continue to use the code in letters that might be captured, to spread disinformation that would be advantageous in the ongoing peace negotiations. The coded advice letter itself was intercepted by the English and deciphered. The letter also suggested the use of fire signals to advertise how much longer they could last, as food was short, for the benefit of the French diplomats at Edinburgh Castle. Signal beacons were to be lit on St Anthony's Church or the Citadel or both, half an hour before midnight. The letter was obtained in Edinburgh by
William Cecil who hoped that either Mr Hampton (Bernard Hampton) or "
Mr Sommer" could decipher it. Cecil would have paid £100 to have Somers with him in Edinburgh. The text was deciphered, put into "Throckmorton's cipher", and sent back to the negotiators in Edinburgh.
Hunger in Leith On 8 May, after the assault, Grey sent Francis Killinghale to London carrying a detailed analysis of the situation. Grey was worried about deserters "stealing" back into England, but he thought that with reinforcements he could take the town by storm, or enclose it and starve out the garrison, as there was already "great scarcity" within.
Ralph Sadler also wrote of desertions and the weariness of the besiegers. The French continued to make sallies from the town, despite their dwindling provisions. The besiegers, conversely, were supplied with more troops and provisions from England and Scotland. Grey described his men killing 40 or 50 French soldiers and others who came out of the town to gather cockles and periwinkles on 13 May. The French journalist wrote of the same event, relating that some of the hungry townspeople went out to collect shell-fish and were attacked by the English. A little French boy taken on the shore was brought to Grey of Wilton. When asked if they had enough food for a fortnight, the boy said he had heard the captains say the English would not take the town by famine or force for four or five months yet.
Raphael Holinshed puts this event on 4 July, saying that Grey first issued a warning to d'Oysel about the cockle-pickers. The 17th century writer John Hayward gave a description of famine in the town based on the account of an English prisoner in Leith called Scattergood. He said the inhabitants and troops were reduced to eating horses, dogs, cats and vermin, with leaves, weeds and grass, "seasoned with hunger"."Hereupon they grewe very short in strength of men, and no lesse short in provision of foode for those men which they had; the one happeninge to tress for them by the force of their enimies, the other either by disabilitie or negligence of their freinds; so, their old stoore beinge spent, they were inforced to make use of every thinge out of which hunger was able to drawe nourishement. The fleshe of horses was then more daintie then ever they esteemed venison before; doggs, catts, and vermine of more vile nature were highelie valued; vines were striped of their leaves and tender stalkes; grasse and weedes were picked up, and, beinge well seasoned with hunger, were reputed amonge (them) for dainties and dilicate dishes." Holinshed mentions Hayward's source, Scattergood, as a spy who entered Leith pretending to be a fugitive or deserter. Peter Carew reported on 28 May 1560 that the French had no meat or drink except water for three weeks. There was only bread and salted salmon. These were rationed with 126 ounces of bread for a man each day and a salmon between six men each week. There were 2,300 French soldiers in Leith and more than 2,000 others. After Mary of Guise died, a week's truce was declared on Monday 17 June. On 20 June, French and English soldiers ate together on the beach. Captain Vaughan,
Andrew Corbett,
Edward Fitton and their men brought beef, bacon, poultry, wine and beer: the French brought cold roast capon, a horse pie and six roast rats. William Cecil and Nicholas Wotton thought reports of a lack of food in Leith were exaggerated. The French had access to fresh fish and had two fishing boats with nets. They had been able to send provisions to Inchkeith. The ordinary townsfolk however had been driven to extremity, forced "to seek their living by cockles and other shellfish upon the sea sands". ==Treaty of Edinburgh==