Battle of Solway Moss

The Battle of Solway Moss took place on Solway Moss near the River Esk on the English side of the Anglo-Scottish border in November 1542 between English and Scottish forces.

The Scottish King James V had refused to break from the Catholic Church, as urged by his uncle King Henry VIII, who then launched a major raid into south-west Scotland. The Scottish army that marched against them was poorly led and organised, and many Scots were either captured or drowned in the river. News of the defeat is believed to have hastened the early death of James V.

When Henry VIII of England broke from the Roman Catholic Church, he asked James V of Scotland, his nephew, to do the same. James ignored his uncle's request and further insulted him by refusing to meet with Henry at York. Furious after the defeat of his forces at Hadden Rig, Henry VIII sent troops led by Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk against Scotland. In retaliation for the massive English raid into Scotland, James assigned Robert, Lord Maxwell, the Scottish Warden of West March, the task of raising an army.

James wrote to Pope Paul III on 9 November 1542 about the English raid, and explained that he had defied Henry's attempts to convert him to the Protestant faith by waging war with his vast resources gained from the dissolution of the monasteries. The Earl of Angus wrote that Cardinal Beaton and the Earl of Moray had intended to follow the Scottish army into England at the East March and serve a papal interdict in English churches.

An order for the muster of Scottish forces at the Kirk of Morton (near Bogrie, in Scotland) before dawn on 22 November survives. Men from Dumfries, Peebles, Selkirk, and Hawick were summoned. The note mentions their routes; from Dumfries to Hoddom and Kirkconnel tower in Ecclefechan; from Peebles to Moffat; from Selkirk to Eskdalemuir.

On 24 November 1542, an army of 15,000–18,000 Scots advanced into England. Lord Maxwell, though never officially designated commander of the force, declared he would lead the attack in person. A report of George Douglas of Pittendreich, who was not present, and some later chronicle accounts, say that in the absence of Maxwell, Oliver Sinclair, James V's favourite, declared himself to be James's chosen commander. According to this account of the battle, the other commanders refused to accept his command and the command structure disintegrated. The English commanders, Lord Wharton and Sir William Musgrave, made reports of the battle. Musgrave stated that Maxwell was still in charge and fought with the rest of the Scottish nobles, who were forced to dismount on the bank of the River Esk.

The Scots' advance into England was met near Solway Moss by Lord Wharton and his 3,000 men. The battle was uncoordinated and may be described as a rout. Sir Thomas Wharton described the battle as the overthrow of the Scots between the rivers Esk and Lyne. The Scots, after the first encounter of a cavalry chase at "Akeshawsill", now Oakshawhill, moved "down" towards Arthuret Howes. They found themselves penned in south of the Esk, on English territory between the river and the Moss (a peat bog), and after intense fighting surrendered themselves and their 10 field guns to the English cavalry. Wharton said the Scots were halted at the Sandy Ford by Arthuret mill dam. The Scots were 'beguiled by their own guiding', according to one Scottish writer. Several hundred of the Scots may have drowned in the marshes and river.

James, who was not present at the battle (he had remained at Lochmaben), withdrew to Falkland Palace, humiliated and ill with fever. The news that his wife had given birth to a daughter instead of a son further crushed his will to live, and he is reported to have stated that the House of Stewart "came with a lass and will go with a lass". He died at Falkland two weeks later at the age of thirty. According to George Douglas, in his delirium he lamented the capture of his banner and Oliver Sinclair at Solway Moss more than his other losses.