Battle of Glasgow (1544)

Lennox wrote to Mary of Guise on 7 March 1544 hoping to buy time by offering his innocence to be tried before a convention of his peers.

He wrote that it was heavily murmured by the Governor and his council;"that I am the principell man that causis division and braik be in this realme and makis daily insurrectionis and disobeance contrar the authority."

[9] At this juncture, Robert Boyd of Kilmarnock and his friend Mungo Mure of Rowallan, valiantly thrust themselves "into the midst of the combat", which resulted favourably for the Regent Hamilton at the end of the battle.

According to an English messenger, Edward Storye, it was reported that Hamilton then took the town of Glasgow and laid siege to Bishop's Castle on Wednesday 26 March.

[11] The Earl of Glencairn's eldest son, Alexander Cunningham, Lord Kilmaurs, and Lennox's brother, Robert Stewart, Bishop-designate of Caithness, slipped away from Dumbarton Castle at night through the river Clyde, and then rode through the west country to England.

Glencairn's son, Andrew Cunningham, and John Hamilton of Cambuskeith, Arran's Master of Household, were killed at this battle.

[13] Ten years later, a number of men received pardons for their presence at the battle on Lennox's side against the Regent, including: William Cunningham, Earl of Glencairn; George Forrester of Kiddisdale; Robert Hamilton of Briggis; George Hay, 7th Earl of Erroll; Robert Drummond of Carnock; and John Wemyss of that ilk.

In their account, the Governor, Regent Arran, had heard that Lennox had left Glasgow and came with an army including Lord Boyd.

Buchanan mentions the Regent's troops carrying off the window shutters and doors of houses in Glasgow, but not the defence of the Castle and Cathedral.

[19] However, the four later 16th-century chronicles strongly reflect their authors' own political and religious viewpoints and tend to include partisan detail and suggestion.