172MUSSELBURGH FIELD
‘Musleboorrowe ffeild,’ Percy MS., p. 54; Hales and Furnivall, I, 123.
The Protector Somerset, to overcome or to punish the opposition of the Scots to the marriage of Mary Stuart with Edward VI, invaded Scotland at the end of the summer of 1547 with eighteen thousand men, supported by a fleet. The Scots mustered at Musselburgh, a town on the water five or six miles east of Edinburgh, under the Earls of Arran, Angus, and Huntly, each of whom, according to Buchanan, had ten thousand men, and there the issue was tried on the 10th of September. The northern army abandoned an impregnable position, and their superior, but ill-managed, and partly ill-composed, force, after successfully resisting a cavalry charge, was put to flight by the English, who had an advantage in cannon and cavalry as well as generalship. A hideous slaughter followed; Leslie admits that, in the chase and battle, there were slain above ten thousand of his countrymen. Patten, a Londoner who saw and described the fight, says that the one anxiety of the Scots was lest the English should get away, and that they were so sure of victory that, the night before the battle, they fell “to playing at dice for certain of our noblemen and captains of fame” (cf. stanza 3), as the French diced for prisoners on the eve of Agincourt. The dates are wrong in 11,2, 51; Huntly is rightly said to have been made prisoner, 71.
6, 8. When the Scots were once turned, says Patten, “it was a wonder to see how soon and in how sundry sorts they were scattered; the place they stood on like a wood of staves, strewed on the ground as rushes in a chamber, unpassable, they lay so thick, for either horse or man.” Some made their course along the sands by the Frith, towards Leith; some straight toward Edinburgh; “and the residue, and (as we noted then) the most, of them toward Dalkeith, which way, by means of the marsh, our horsemen were worst able to follow.”[244]
The battle is known also by the name of Pinkie or Pinkie Cleuch, appellations of an estate, a burn and a hill (“a hill called Pinkincleuche,” Leslie), near or within the field of operations.
Percy remarks upon 33: “It should seem from hence that there was somewhat of a uniform among our soldiers even then.” There are jackets white and red in No 166, 293. Sir William Stanley has ten thousand red coats at his order in ‘Lady Bessy,’ vv 593, 809–11, 937 f, Percy MS., III, 344, 352, 358; Sir John Savage has fifteen hundred white hoods in the same piece, v. 815.
1On the tenth day of December,And the fourth yeere of KingEdwards raigne,Att Musleboorrowe, as I remember,Two goodly hosts there mett on a plaine.2All that night they camped there,Soe did the Scotts, both stout and stubborne;But “wellaway,” it was their song,For wee haue taken them in their owne turne.3Over night they carded for our English mens coates;They fished before their netts were spunn;A white for sixpence, a red fortwo groates;Now wisdome wold haue stayed till they had been woone.4Wee feared not but that they wold fight,Yett itt was turned vnto their owne paine;Thoe against one of vsthat they were eight,Yett with their owne weapons wee did them beat.5On the twelfth day in the morneThe made a face as the wold fight,But many a proud Scott there was downe borne,And many a ranke coward was put to flight.6But when they heard our great gunnes cracke,Then was their harts turned into their hose;They cast down their weapons, and turned their backes,They ran soe fastthat the fell on their nose.7The LordHuntley, wee had him there;With him hee brought ten thousand men,Yett, God bee thanked, wee made them such a banquettThat none of them returned againe.8Wee chased them to D[alkeith]
1On the tenth day of December,And the fourth yeere of KingEdwards raigne,Att Musleboorrowe, as I remember,Two goodly hosts there mett on a plaine.2All that night they camped there,Soe did the Scotts, both stout and stubborne;But “wellaway,” it was their song,For wee haue taken them in their owne turne.3Over night they carded for our English mens coates;They fished before their netts were spunn;A white for sixpence, a red fortwo groates;Now wisdome wold haue stayed till they had been woone.4Wee feared not but that they wold fight,Yett itt was turned vnto their owne paine;Thoe against one of vsthat they were eight,Yett with their owne weapons wee did them beat.5On the twelfth day in the morneThe made a face as the wold fight,But many a proud Scott there was downe borne,And many a ranke coward was put to flight.6But when they heard our great gunnes cracke,Then was their harts turned into their hose;They cast down their weapons, and turned their backes,They ran soe fastthat the fell on their nose.7The LordHuntley, wee had him there;With him hee brought ten thousand men,Yett, God bee thanked, wee made them such a banquettThat none of them returned againe.8Wee chased them to D[alkeith]
1On the tenth day of December,And the fourth yeere of KingEdwards raigne,Att Musleboorrowe, as I remember,Two goodly hosts there mett on a plaine.
1
On the tenth day of December,
And the fourth yeere of KingEdwards raigne,
Att Musleboorrowe, as I remember,
Two goodly hosts there mett on a plaine.
2All that night they camped there,Soe did the Scotts, both stout and stubborne;But “wellaway,” it was their song,For wee haue taken them in their owne turne.
2
All that night they camped there,
Soe did the Scotts, both stout and stubborne;
But “wellaway,” it was their song,
For wee haue taken them in their owne turne.
3Over night they carded for our English mens coates;They fished before their netts were spunn;A white for sixpence, a red fortwo groates;Now wisdome wold haue stayed till they had been woone.
3
Over night they carded for our English mens coates;
They fished before their netts were spunn;
A white for sixpence, a red fortwo groates;
Now wisdome wold haue stayed till they had been woone.
4Wee feared not but that they wold fight,Yett itt was turned vnto their owne paine;Thoe against one of vsthat they were eight,Yett with their owne weapons wee did them beat.
4
Wee feared not but that they wold fight,
Yett itt was turned vnto their owne paine;
Thoe against one of vsthat they were eight,
Yett with their owne weapons wee did them beat.
5On the twelfth day in the morneThe made a face as the wold fight,But many a proud Scott there was downe borne,And many a ranke coward was put to flight.
5
On the twelfth day in the morne
The made a face as the wold fight,
But many a proud Scott there was downe borne,
And many a ranke coward was put to flight.
6But when they heard our great gunnes cracke,Then was their harts turned into their hose;They cast down their weapons, and turned their backes,They ran soe fastthat the fell on their nose.
6
But when they heard our great gunnes cracke,
Then was their harts turned into their hose;
They cast down their weapons, and turned their backes,
They ran soe fastthat the fell on their nose.
7The LordHuntley, wee had him there;With him hee brought ten thousand men,Yett, God bee thanked, wee made them such a banquettThat none of them returned againe.
7
The LordHuntley, wee had him there;
With him hee brought ten thousand men,
Yett, God bee thanked, wee made them such a banquett
That none of them returned againe.
8Wee chased them to D[alkeith]
8
Wee chased them to D[alkeith]
* * * * *
11. 10th.
12. 4th:.
14. 2.
21. all night that.
24. hornemay be the reading,insteadof turne.
33. 6d:pro2.
43. 8t:.
51. 12th:.
72. 10000.
81.Half a page gone.