Mariotta Haliburton

Alexander Home was taken prisoner, and George was injured, and while he lay sick in Edinburgh, the English army arrived at Hume on 20 September.

Mariotta told the Earl that she dared not show her husband his letter and the pledges her people had made to England, and asked him to make new agreements that risked only their possessions, not their loyalty to Scotland.

[9] In another letter she advised Guise to maintain discipline amongst the soldiers at this crucial time for the Auld Alliance;"Your grace maun be very scherp batht on the Franch men and on the Scottis men, or it will nocht be weill; yet ader (either) to do as aferis to tham or lat it be, they mecht never getin sa gud ane tym.

"[10]In a letter to Guise written at Home Castle on 28 March 1549 she mentions a Spanish captain called the "Mour", "as sharp a man as rides".

[11] The man called the "Mour" is understood to be of African origin, and has been identified with a soldier named Pedro de Negro.

[12] Mariotta's original letters to Somerset and Guise are kept in the National Library of Scotland and the Public Record Office at Kew.

In 1617 this Anglo-Scottish marital union was celebrated by her kinsman and poet David Hume of Godscroft in the Muses Welcome to the High and Mighty Prince James.

Godscroft pictured the marriage as an epitome of the union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland, writing that Mary Dudley's hand now restored the houses and castles formerly destroyed in border warfare.