Sir Miles Partridge Battle of Pinkie Cleugh : Rough Wooing Blog :
Battle of Pinkie Cleugh : Exhibition at Musselburgh.
The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, which took place in the open country between Inveresk and Wallyford, was the biggest and bloodiest battle ever fought in Scotland. It occurred in 1547, and was the last battle between the separate kingdoms of Scotland and England. Pinkie Cleugh marked the culmination of Henry VIII's effort, later called "Rough Wooing"; to coerce marriage between the two child sovereigns, Edward VI of England and Mary, Queen of Scots. The immediate outcome of the fighting was a disastrous defeat for the Scots, more than 10,000 of whom were killed, compared with a few hundred English dead. But when the war ended three years later, Scotland remained free of English power - and Mary in due time married the King of France. The two British Kingdoms were peacefully united when Mary's son James VI inherited the English throne from Elizabeth I, in 1603.
