ARTILLERY UNDER THE STUART KINGS, 1424-1625. 507 
English troops, who had a bridge to cross, and thrown their ranks into 
disorder before charging down on them. This golden opportunity is 
thus described by an able historian :— 
“The army of the Earl of Surrey was still marching across the 
bridge, when Borthwick, the master of the artillery, fell on his 
knees before the King and earnestly solicited permission to bring 
his guns to bear upon the columns, which might be then done 
with ‘the most destructive effect; but James commanded him to 
desist on peril of his head, declaring that he would meet his 
antagonist on equal terms in a plain field and scorned to avail 
himself of such an advantage.” 1 
The result of this ill-timed chivalry, or rather Stuart obstinacy, is 
well known. In addition to their monarch, Scotland had to mourn 
the flower of her nobility and thousands of her best soldiers. All the 
artillery, consisting of nearly a score of cannon “of various shapes and 
dimensions, amongst which were six guns admirable for their fabric 
and beauty, named by the late monarch the Six Sisters,” fell into the 
hands of the English. The Earl of Surrey is said to have declared 
that some of the captured [ordnance excelled any in the English 
arsenals.” 2 
In 1540, the Parliament of James Y. enacted that “Landed men 
were to have, in proportion to their valuation, hagbuts, small artillery 
and ammunition with men for fixing them.” 3 In the same year an 
army, which was to include “ a train of sixteen great and sixty lesser 
cannon,” was ordered to be ready to take the field within twenty days 
after Easter.” 
When James, two years later, assembled 30,000 men and a train of 
artillery, with which force he proposed to invade England, he found 
the leaders of his army so rebellious and unmanageable that he was 
obliged to disband his troops and return to his capital. His chagrin, 
at being reduced to a cipher, was soon afterwards doubled at the 
ignominious defeat of 10,000 Scots troops, at Solway Moss, by a small 
body of English horse under Lords Dacre and Musgrave, who surprised 
the Scottish camp at the moment when discord and divided councils 
were rife. This national disgrace broke the King’s heart and he died 
at his palace at Falkland, 13 December, 1542, leaving an infant 
daughter of six days old. 
Passing over the minority and so-called reign of the hapless Mary 
Queen of Scots, we arrive at the gloomy period of Scottish history 
when the Earl of Leunox was chosen Regent, which was in the year 
1570. In this same year the Earl of Sussex marched from Berwick 
into Scotland with an army well supplied with both field and siege 
artillery. He destroyed several towns and castles of importance. The 
Scottish ordnance had now reached a very low ebb indeed. At the 
battle of Musselburgh, in 1547, the Duke of Somerset had captured 
some of the best artillery in the kingdom and the rival factions, which 
1 Tytler’s “ History of Scotland,” Vol. V., pp. 01-2. 
2 Hid. p G7. 
3 w Acts of the Parliament of Scotland,” 
